Daily Times

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported on Monday that the overall debt and liabilities of the nation grew by Rs11.85t in FY22.

According to figures on domestic and foreign debts and liabilities, as of June 30 the overall debt and liabilities for Pakistan were Rs59.696t, up from Rs47.844t in FY21.According to the SBP, Pakistan’s IMF debt climbed by 21pc in a year to Rs1.4t by the end of the previous fiscal year.

Due to reckless fiscal policies and the disastrous effects of currency devaluation, Pakistan’s overall debt and obligations increased to Rs59.7t during the diamond jubilee year, adding Rs12t, or one-fourth of the entire debt accrued during the previous 74 years.

According to the World Bank, Pakistan’s total population is 220m, considering that our total national debt is Rs60t in FY22 then by doing simple calculations each Pakistani owes about Rs2,727,27 in debt.

Pakistan is rapidly sinking beneath an intolerable debt load, according to the central bank’s most recent debt bulletin for fiscal year 2021-2022, which it issued on Monday. The debt burden grew both in absolute terms and in terms of the size of the national economy.

This indicates that the country increased one-fourth of the debt accrued from July 1947 to June 2021 during the fiscal year 2021-2022. Despite the economy being rebased, Pakistan’s overall debt and liabilities increased from 76.4pc of GDP in 2018 to 89.2pc by June of this year. To stop the debt from accumulating, no government has implemented significant measures.

However, throughout the last two fiscal years, the overall debt and liabilities servicing as a proportion of GDP stayed the same at 8.2pc in FY21 and FY22. By June 30, FY22, the gross domestic debt of the central government (excluding external debt) stood at Rs31.036t, up from Rs26.265t at the end of June in FY21.

In FY22, Pakistan’s gross external debt climbed by $7.9b to $130.192b from $122.292b in FY21. However, the whole government’s external debt increased from $82.5b in FY21 to $86.134b in FY22. In FY22, Pakistan had to pay $15.071b to service its external debt, up from $13.424b the year before. Pakistan paid $2.978b in interest on top of $12.093b in principle, according to the breakdown. About 25pc of the principle was made up of interest.

The $15b debt service is comparable to the $17.4b current account deficit for FY22. The SBP’s foreign exchange reserves were much less than the current account deficit, which had a negative impact on the exchange rate and caused the dollar to rise to an all-time high of Rs239.5. Since the government has substantially cut imports to address the current account deficit, Pakistan is battling to recover. However, the drastic import restrictions crippled the economy and would lead to a significant loss to various sectors.