Pakistan economy hits at debt and liabilities increase to rupees 14.79 trillion

Pakistan's overall domestic debt and liabilities have increased to Rupees 14.79 trillion till September 2016, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a report. The National Data Summary released by the central bank said on September 30, the country's overall domestic debt and liabilities stood at Rupees 14.79 trillion, whereas the external debt and liabilities stood at USD 72.98 million on June 30.During the three-year rule of the current government, domestic debt and liabilities showed an increase of Rupees 5,255 billion and external debt more than Rupees 2,500 billion.

The PML-N government has so far failed to bring the debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio to within the statutory limits of 60 per cent. The overall debt pile reached around 68 per cent which is a violation of Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act,2005 which binds the government to keep the total public debt below 60 per cent of the GDP.

The report said Pakistan's overall debt and liabilities have seen an increase of Rupees 0.8 trillion since the PML-N government came to power. According to official documents, in June 2013, the overall debt and liabilities were at the level of Rupees 14.32 trillion under which, domestic debt and liabilities stood at Rupees 9.52 trillion and external debt and liabilities were recorded at Rupees 4.8 trillion.The SBP data said on September 30, the overall domestic debt, including long-term debt, stood at Rupees 7.9 trillion and short-term debt stood at Rupees 6.48 trillion.

The data also shows that external debt was recorded at USD 72.98 billion on June 30, out of which, USD 61.36 billion was public debt, Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) guaranteed debt stood at USD 127 million, PSE non-guaranteed debt was USD 148 million.

During the same period, scheduled banks' borrowing amounted to USD 1,638 million, non-resident deposits stood atUSD 1,088 million, private non-guaranteed USD 3,293 million, private non-guaranteed bonds at USD 12 million and debtliabilities to direct investors for inter-company debt stood at USD 2,853 million.