April 10, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs231.27 billion during the week ended March 29, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs3.64 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 Rs242.32bn, while the retirement off commodity operations stood at Rs9.18bn.
Meanwhile, a total of Rs1.87bn was retired off others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs4 trillion for budgetary support, Rs361.98bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs1.55bn 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 Rs667.04bn to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs332.72bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs315.42bn, AJK Government retired Rs17.73bn, and the GB Government retired Rs1.16bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs4.67tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs4.84tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs175.84bn.
