March 26, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs181.27 billion during the week ended March 15, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs3.4 trillion, according to the central bank's weekly estimates.
Government borrowings for the current fiscal year have consistently remained higher in comparison to previous years.
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 borrowing for budgetary support was Rs187.49bn, while the retirement off commodity operations stood at Rs7.13bn.
Meanwhile, a total of Rs913.5m was borrowed for others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs3.73 trillion for budgetary support, Rs323.17bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs1.48bn borrowing for others.
The two biggest source 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 Rs575.11bn to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs408.37bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs136.52bn, AJK Government retired Rs24.06bn, and the GB Government retired Rs6.17bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs4.3tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs4.48tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs175.84bn.
