May 22, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs210.61 billion during the week ended May 10, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.38 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 Rs144.02bn, while the borrowing for commodity operations stood at Rs66.8bn.
Meanwhile, a total of Rs206.2m was retired off others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.57 trillion for budgetary support, Rs185.87bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs3.12bn retirement off 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 Rs358.53bn to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs26.29bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs317.47bn, AJK Government retired Rs15.59bn, and the GB Government borrowed Rs0.83bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs5.93tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs6.08tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs151.49bn.
