Govt. borrowing expands by Rs400 billion in a week

April 10, 2020 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs.400.25 billion during the week ended March 27, 2020, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2020 to Rs.995.44 billion. As of prior week, the government had borrowed a net sum of Rs.595.19 billion.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan's weekly estimates in this regard, this year's overall net borrowing as of this week has increased by Rs.162.12 billion over the year as last year's net borrowing for the same period stood at Rs.833.32 billion.

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 cumulative net borrowing for budgetary support was Rs.1.09 trillion, while that for other purposes stood at Rs.6.01 billion. On the contrary, a net total of Rs.105.48 billion were retired off Commodity Operations.

The two biggest source of financing for budgetary support are the State Bank of Pakistan and the Scheduled Banks. This fiscal year, the central bank has been retired a net sum of Rs.366.33 billion by the government, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs.122.44 billion, the Provincial Government retired Rs.223.6 billion, AJK Government retired Rs.16.1 billion, and the GB Government retired Rs.4.19 billion.

On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs.1.46 trillion out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs.1.53 trillion while the Provincial Government retired Rs.71.07 billion.

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