During the previous fiscal year (2020-21), the government received $15.32 billion in new foreign loans from multilateral institutions and commercial banks, up over 47% from $10.45 billion last year.
With these additional loan agreements, the incumbent government contracted a total of about $34.17bn in its first three years in power, according to the ‘Annual Report on Foreign Economic Assistance 2020-21’ released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Total foreign loan disbursements stood relatively higher at $35.1bn during the three years.
The data showed that Pakistan contracted $8.41bn in the fiscal year 2018-19, followed by $10.45bn in 2019-20 (up 24pc), and $15.32bn in 2020-21 (up 47pc).
With this, Pakistan’s external public debt stood at $85.6bn as of June 30, 2021, showing a net increase of about $7.7bn (10pc) compared to $77.9bn as of June 30, 2020. By the end of June 2019, the external public debt amounted to $73.4bn.
The report explained that a higher commitment during the last fiscal year was made “to mitigate the pressure on the current account deficit, strengthen foreign exchange reserves, enhance external debt servicing capacity and provide requisite financing to water sector development”.
According to the report, $6.97bn in financing agreements were signed with multilateral development partners, $4.66bn with foreign commercial banks, and $187 million with bilateral development partners out of a total of $15.32bn in new agreements signed in the previous fiscal year.
In addition, the government borrowed $2.5bn in Eurobonds from international capital markets and $1bn from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE). As a deposit from the Chinese government’s foreign exchange and international trade agency,
