Govt retires Rs188bn debt in a week

March 04, 2026 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has retired a debt of Rs188.01 billion during the week ended February 20, 2026, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2026 to Rs96.59bn, according to the central bank's weekly estimates.

The government sector borrowings are divided into three broad categories based on the purpose of loan which are budgetary support, commodity operations, and others.

Split three ways between these broad categories, the weekly net retirement off budgetary support was Rs179.48bn, while the retirement off commodity operations stood at Rs8.24bn.

Similarly, a total of Rs285m was retired off others during the week.

Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2026 to Rs111.07bn for budgetary support, Rs15.38bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs0.9bn borrowing for others.

The two biggest sources of financing for budgetary support are the State Bank of Pakistan and the scheduled banks.

This fiscal year, the government has paid off a net sum of Rs2.06 trillion to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs1.92 trillion whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs72.14bn, AJK Government retired Rs36.54bn, and the GB Government retired Rs32.44bn.

On the other hand, the government has lent out a net total of Rs2.17tr to scheduled banks. Out of this amount, the Federal Government borrowed Rs2.41tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs244.77bn.

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