June 12, 2024 (MLN): The government of Pakistan has acquired an additional debt of Rs364.64 billion during the week ended May 31, 2024, which brings its total net borrowing for ongoing fiscal year 2024 to Rs5.89 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 Rs350.55bn, while the borrowing for commodity operations stood at Rs14.08bn.
Similarly, a total of Rs6.03m was borrowed for others during the week.
Accordingly, this takes the cumulative borrowing for the current fiscal year 2024 to Rs6.03 trillion for budgetary support, Rs135.38bn retirement off Commodity Operations, and Rs5.47bn 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 Rs1.08 trillion to the central bank, out of which the Federal Government retired Rs699.67bn whereas, the Provincial Government retired Rs341.17bn, AJK Government retired Rs36.09bn, and the GB Government retired Rs5.36bn.
On the other hand, the Scheduled Banks have lent out a net total of Rs7.12tr out of which the Federal Government borrowed Rs7.38tr while the Provincial Government retired Rs261.27bn.
