Currency depreciation causes public debt to rise by Rs2.7 trillion in July

The public debt in the month of July increased by Rs2.7 trillion primarily due to revaluation of external debt by the government due to 17 percent currency depreciation in a single month.

The Rs2.7 trillion amounts to Rs88 billion a day. State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) figures have shown that the total debt of Pakistan has now gone up to a new record of Rs50.5 trillion, after a massive Rs2.7 trillion increase in July.

The Rs50.5 trillion debt would eat up to 42 percent of the federal budget and has now equaled three-fourth of the Pakistani economy.

SBP has stated that the average exchange rate on the last day of July 2022 was Rs239.71, showing a depreciation of Rs35.34, compared to exchange rate on the last day of June.

The current government has managed to pile up 29 percent of previous fiscal year’s debt in a single month, SBP’s data has showed.

Consequently, the debt servicing has shot up to Rs5.5 trillion compared with last year’s Rs4.6 trillion. Pakistan’s total loans would rise to $40 billion in current financial year after International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) recent loan tranche of combined seventh and eighth reviews.

Recent devastation by catastrophic flooding would add more burden to the already strained economy.

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