More than 13 billion dollars of debt contracted in 10 months: EAD

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan incurred $13.033 billion in external debt from multiple funding sources in the first 10 months (July-April 2021-22) including $2.623 billion from foreign commercial banks (20%) against the total budgeted external lending of $14.088 billion for the entire fiscal year.

The Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on Monday released data that shows the country received $262.14 million from multiple sources of funding in April 2022. However, no amount was borrowed from foreign commercial banks in April 2022. The government has budgeted foreign aid estimates. $14.088 billion for the current fiscal year, including $13.871 billion in loans and $217.44 million in grants from multilateral and bilateral sources.

External inflows during the corresponding period (July-April) of FY 2020-21 were $10.195 billion including $3.246 billion from foreign commercial banks against the budgeted amount of $12.233 billion.

1HFY22: $8.48 billion in commitment agreements signed

The total receipt of $13.033 billion constitutes $4.050 billion from multilateral, $485.97 million from bilateral, $2.623 billion from foreign commercial banks and $2.041 billion from bond issuance and $3 billion Saudi Arabia term deposit.

Non-project aid was 10.263 billion dollars including 9.024 billion dollars for budget support and project aid was 1.937 billion dollars.

Loans secured were $832.53 million in the first 10 months of 2021-22.

The government borrowed $2.623 billion from foreign commercial banks in the first ten months of the current fiscal year, including $1.140 billion from Dubai Bank, $487.26 million from SCB (London), $61 million dollars to Ajman Bank PJSC, $343.50 million to Switzerland AG, UBL and ABL and $591.25 million to Emirates NBD.

Among the multilateral development partners, mainly the Asian Development Bank provided $1.454 billion, the World Bank disbursed $1.189 billion, the AIIB $38.87 million, the IDB $68.70 million and the IDB (S-Term) $1.208 billion.

China disbursed $153.30 million in the first 10 months (July-April) of the current fiscal year, the United States $64.32 million, Korea $4.81 million, the Kingdom United States $16.01 million and Germany $13.25 million and Saudi Arabia $201 million including $100 million I April for imports of petroleum products.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022