KARACHI ( WEB NEWS )
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the federal government took a loan of 1,252 billion rupees in November 2024, bringing the total debt to 70,366 billion rupees by November 2024. This includes domestic debt of 48,585 billion rupees and external debt of 21,780 billion rupees. At the end of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tenure in April 2022, the total federal government debt stood at 43,500 billion rupees. Since then, the PDM government, caretaker government, and the current Shehbaz Sharif government have added another 27,000 billion rupees to the debt. According to the State Bank, the total government debt has now reached 65% of the GDP, meaning that each Pakistani citizen is indebted by 300,000 rupees. The State Bank also noted that the national debt has increased by 1.1% monthly and nearly 10% annually.
During a statement in the National Assembly last year in September, the Minister of State for Finance mentioned that over the past 5 years, various governments had accumulated a total debt of 57.27 billion dollars, of which 9.81 billion dollars were used for development projects, and 3.9 billion dollars were spent on interest payments. Throughout different governments’ tenures, Pakistan has also borrowed from the IMF. The Pakistan People’s Party, during its tenure from 2008 to 2013, borrowed a total of 7.72 billion dollars, while the Pakistan Muslim League (N) borrowed 6.48 billion dollars between 2013 and 2018. Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government, from 2018 to 2022, borrowed 6 billion dollars.