External Debt Registers 200 Percent Increase as Federal Government Secures $5.44 Billion in First Three Months, Exceeding Last Year by Over Rs. 1,000 Billion
ISLAMABAD: Official data on the federal government’s external borrowing for the first three months of the new fiscal year has become available and it reveals a massive increase in foreign inflows.
Economic Affairs Division papers show that external loans increased by a whopping 200 per cent in the first quarter. Pakistan benefited from external financing worth $5.449 billion from July to September, which is $3.63 billion more than during the same period of last year when external financing was $1.81 billion.
Some of the highlights of the Federal Government’s external borrowing report are:
Foreign Inflows: Pakistan earned $2.94 billion from the international bonds, $942.7 million through Naya Pakistan Certificates and $300 million from commercial bank loans from foreign countries.
Multilateral and Bilateral Financing: The financial institutions of the world gave $894.1 million and different friendly countries gave $58.1 million during the review period. In particular, the World Bank has disbursed $359 million and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has contributed $153.5 million.
The external loans taken during first quarter were Rs. Local Currency Equivalence of external loans taken during first quarter. The amount of additional borrowing in terms of 1,515 billion is over Rs. 1,000 billion vs. the same period last year.
It also pointed out the difference between Non-Project and Project Loans, with over Rs. The total amount of non-project financing was Rs. 1,260 billion and the amount of project loans for various developmental schemes was Rs. 254.8 billion.