ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s debt and liabilities skyrocketed to Rs33.3 trillion at the end of 2018 with addition of Rs3.4 trillion in just six months, reported the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had promised to revive loss-making enterprises, but it is struggling to control these losses. By December, total losses of public sector enterprises (PSEs) surged to Rs1.6 trillion, a net addition of Rs192.6 billion or 13.8% in the past six months.
The only thing that the PTI government has so far done is the incorporation of Pakistan Sarmaya Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP). The company still remains on paper as the government has appointed three directors – all of them federal secretaries.
The federal finance secretary is the chief executive officer of the company that has a paid-up capital of Rs100,000.
External debt and liabilities of Pakistan mounted to $99.1 billion as of December 2018, according to the central bank. Taking new loans to repay the old ones is a new normal in the finance ministry. It also invited bids on Friday to hire financial advisers for floating Panda Bonds in Chinese debt markets.
Statistics released by the central bank showed that by the end of first half of the current fiscal year, the country’s total debt and liabilities soared to Rs33.23 trillion. Within a span of six months, there was an increase of Rs3.34 trillion, or 11.2%, in the overall debt and liabilities.
Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities are now equal to 86.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP), which is a quite high ratio and is considered unsustainable for the country. Only to service the public debt, the finance ministry spends 36% of the total budget.
