Pakistan’s foreign debt ratio shoots up amid ongoing economic crisis: Report
Islamabad, (PTI): The ratio of foreign debt of cash-strapped Pakistan has shot up from 36.9 per cent in FY22 to 38.3 per cent in FY23, according to a media report on Friday.
The Ministry of Finance’s Annual Debt Review and Public Debt Bulletin FY2023 comes amid unchecked domestic inflation as the cash-strapped Pakistan’s economy has been in a free-fall mode for the last several years.
Terming it as “an alarming development”, Geo News said, the FY2023 Bulletin shows that “the total public debt peaked at Rs 62.88 trillion till the end of June 2023 against Rs 49.2 trillion, indicating that the total public debt increased by Rs 13.64 trillion during the last fiscal year 2022-23 in the tenure of Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition government.” After giving details of the total outstanding guarantees to public sector enterprises, those issued to the oil and gas sector and the guarantees issued against commodity operations, the report said, the ratio of domestic debt to total public debt in percentage has gone down from 63.1 per cent in FY22 to 61.7 per cent in FY23, but at the same time, the ratio of foreign debt has gone up from 36.9 per cent to 38.3 per cent, showing an increase in the ratio of foreign loans by 1.4 per cent.
“The incidence of foreign loans going up clearly indicates that the pace of accumulation of foreign debt has outpaced domestic debt mainly because of massive depreciation on account of the exchange rate,” the GeoTV report said.
“Despite the net reduction in the stock of external debt (in USD) during FY23, the share of external debt in total public debt increased from 37 per cent at the end of June 2022 to 38 per cent at the end of June 2023,” it added.
Earlier, after transferring USD 1.2 billion to the cash-strapped country in July, as part of the USD 3 billion bailout programme for nine months to support the government’s efforts to stabilise the country's ailing economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to send its delegation to Pakistan in the last week of October to review the cash-strapped country’s economic performance in the first three months of the current fiscal year, a media report had said on October 3.
The report added that once the economic review is successfully completed, Pakistan will receive the next instalment of USD 700 million from the IMF after its board's approval.
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LPG issue: Lok Sabha proceedings adjourned again amid opposition protests
New Delhi (PTI): Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till 2 pm on Friday amid relentless protests by opposition members over the LPG situation and hike in its price due to the ongoing West Asia crisis.
As the House reassembled at 12 noon after an earlier adjournment over the same issue, Opposition members trooped into the Well and raised slogans against the government.
After laying of papers, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for refusing to understand the pulse of the people saying if the principal opposition continues to behave in such a manner, people will punish them severely.
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"Their leader is refusing to change. Now the members are also behaving like him. Their leader is indulging in drama in Parliament premises by holding plate and glass. They think that by doing such theatrics they will be able to draw the attention of the people, but people know them very well that is why they have not been able to come to power," Rijiju said.
Expressing disappointment over the Congress behaviour, the minister said no one in the Congress party is making their leader see logic.
"Still there is time to change otherwise people of the country will punish you severely," he said.
As the opposition refused to relent, the Chair adjourned the proceedings till 2 pm.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to respond to a debate on the second batch of supplementary demands for grants this afternoon.
