ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government borrowed USD2.3 billion in additional loans and grants against the budget estimate in the 11 months of the current fiscal year to repay the previous loans.
Documents available with Pakistan Today indicate that Ministry of Finance took additional loans and grants from China, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UK, Asian Development Bank (ADB), AIIB, IBRD, IDB, Bond Holder and commercial banks.
Overall, Pakistan borrowed USD10.4 billion in loans and grants from different countries and bilateral or multilateral institutions from July 2017 to May 2018 against the budget estimates of USD8.09 billion.
Pakistan’s total borrowing in the 11 months of the current fiscal year 2017-18 has reached to USD9.97 billion against the budget estimate of USD7.6 billion as the outgoing government just in last month May received USD698 million in order to keep the country’s reserves stable.
The total reserves of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) stood at USD10,264 million till June 14, 2018.
In addition to this, documents stated that Pakistan has also received USD468 million grants against the budget estimates of USD402 million.
ADB has given USD722 million, AIIB USD24 million, IBRD USD177 million, IDA USD267 million, IDB USD56 million, IDB (S-term) USD987 million, IFAD USD15 million, MDFT USD44 million and OPEC USD4.22 million.
Documents show that China is the leading country who lent USD1.6 billion to Pakistan in the 11 months of the current fiscal year. Furthermore, EU has provided USD34 million, France USD16 million, Germany USD21 million, Japan USD89 million and Saudi Arabia USD55 million in loans and grants to Pakistan in different projects.
Documents further stated that Pakistan received USD3.4 billion from commercial banks and USD2.5 billion while raising the bond in the international market.
In addition to this, UK has given USD169 million and USD101 million in grants to Pakistan.
Documents disclosed that Pakistan only received Rs10.8 billion grants in Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009 in the last 11 months.
The ousted prime minister’s economic team received Rs429 billion in loans and grants in budgetary support programme while the Q Block had estimated Rs216 million in the budget.
SBP, before Eid, had issued the latest central government debt bulletin for the period July-April.
The data showed that the federal government’s debt ballooned to Rs23.6 trillion by the end of April this year. There was a net increase of Rs2.838 trillion, or 13.7 per cent, in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year compared to the level in June 2017.
The federal government is not utilising its deposits that are placed with banks and is instead acquiring more debt to meet its expenses, the debt bulletin stated.
