June 04, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs35.4 billion during the week ended May 24, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.53 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 Rs24.52bn, while the borrowing for commodity operations stood at Rs13.07bn.
Meanwhile, a total of Rs2.19bn was retired off others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.68 trillion for budgetary support, Rs149.47bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs5.48bn 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 Rs1.07 trillion to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs598.84bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs423.28bn, AJK Government retired Rs38.19bn, and the GB Government retired Rs5.16bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs6.75tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs6.9tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs151.49bn.
