April 02, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs1.46 billion during the week ended March 22, 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 Rs32.26bn, while the retirement off commodity operations stood at Rs29.63bn.
Meanwhile, a total of Rs1.17bn was retired off others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs3.76 trillion for budgetary support, Rs352.81bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs0.31bn 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 Rs757.46bn to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs411.9bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs317.1bn, AJK Government retired Rs23.09bn, and the GB Government retired Rs5.36bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs4.51tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs4.69tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs175.84bn.
