PTI Will Pay $55 Billion in Debts From 2018-2023

The PTI government will pay $55 billion in foreign debt payment during its five years tenure that ends in 2023, claimed the Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry. In a tweet, the minister pointed out that the foreign debt payment was during PTI’s tenure is significantly higher compared to the debt payment of the PML-N government, which paid $27 billion in its tenure. He also revealed that Pakistan was going to pay $12.27 billion in the current fiscal year, whereas the payment for the next fiscal year would add up to $12.5 billion.   As per the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the external debt and liabilities reached $127 billion by the end of September 2021. The data shows an increase of $4.85 billion in the country’s external debt and liabilities during the first quarter of FY22. As a percentage of GDP, the amount adds up to 40.2 percent. During the first quarter of the current fiscal year, foreign exchange reserves surged to $19.374 billion from $17.441 billion. The cumulative debt and liabilities comprise Paris Club, the IMF loan, foreign exchange liabilities, Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs) guaranteed debt and non-guaranteed debt. It also includes banks borrowing, non-residential deposits, private sector guaranteed/non-guaranteed debt and foreign exchange and debt liabilities to direct investors. Currently, the Pakistani economy is struggling to maintain growth as the current account deficit has grown significantly due to a growth in imports. The data from the State Bank of Pakistan shows that there has been a drastic increase in the deficit as it reached $1.91 billion in November 2021 compared to a surplus of $563 million in November 2020.