Pakistan’s external debt, liabilities reach $128.9bn in 3QFY22

May 20, 2022 (MLN): Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities (outstanding) reached $128.9 billion at the end of 3QFY22, witnessing an increase of $12.6bn or 10.83% YoY, the central bank data showed on Thursday.

The increase is mainly attributable to the higher mobilization of foreign funds to plug fiscal and current account deficits and the accumulation of foreign reserves during the period.

On the other hand, the country’s external debt and liabilities dropped by $1.71bn or 1.3% QoQ compared to $130.6bn in 2QFY22.

During the PTI government, foreign debt rose by $34bn, while it was $95bn when the PTI government came into power. During PML(N) tenure, foreign debt soared by $34bn as it was $61bn when it came into power.

According to the latest data issued by the SBP, 77% of the entire debt can be attributed to public external debt, the combination of the government’s long-term and short-term external debt, IMF loans to the central bank, and foreign exchange liabilities.  The government external debt which includes both long-term and short-term external debt stood at $81.29bn during 3QFY22, up by 10% YoY while on a quarterly basis, it has declined by 3% QoQ. Meanwhile, IMF loans to the federal government and central bank stood at $4.368bn and $3.1bn respectively, while foreign exchange liabilities outstanding were recorded at $11.53bn during the period under review. 3.24

Within the public external debt, the long-term debt by the end of 3QFY22 stood at $79.86bn, up by 9.18% compared to 3QFY21 whereas the same has decreased by 3.24% QoQ. Short-term debt (less than one year) increased by 40% YoY to $1.43bn compared to the figure recorded at the end of 3QFY21. While it was increased by 12% from $1.28mn at the end of Oct-Dec’21 quarter.

The rest of the amount has been a result of government borrowing from public sector enterprises, banks, and the private sector.

Notably, short-term bank borrowing reached $2.87bn at the end of Q3 of FY22, showing an increase of 25% YoY while on a quarterly basis, the bank borrowing shrank by 6% QoQ.

Long-term bank borrowing was recorded at $1mn at the end of Jan-March 2022, depicting a decline of 90% YoY.

Outstanding external debt of public sector enterprises (PSEs) during 3QFY22 stood at $7.3bn, the figure was around 19% and 7.35% higher when compared with 3QFY21 and with the previous quarter.

Private sector external debt, which attributed to 10% of the total external debt amounted to $11.29bn by the end of 3QFY22 and remained mainly unchanged compared to the previous quarter.

By the end of the third quarter of the fiscal year 2022, the official liquid reserves clocked in at $11.56bn, marking a notable plunge of 15.49% YoY while on the quarterly basis, the official liquid reserves tumbled by 35% QoQ.

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