By Iftikhar Mashwani
ISLAMABAD : In just seven months of the current financial year, the government increased the debt by more than seven thousand billion rupees the highest figures in the financial history of the country.The country’s debts started to increase by 34 billion rupees daily.
The present coalition government has increased the debts by more than 7 thousand billion rupees in just seven months of current financial year.
According to the report of details, the debt of the federal government has increased to about 55 thousand billion rupees by the end of January, it has increased by 7,200 billion rupees during the period of July, 2022 to January, 2023 of the current financial year.
The PDM government increased the debt burden by an average of Rs 34 billion per day during this period.
The increase was due to currency devaluation more than financing the budget deficit.
According to the State Bank report, the average exchange rate on the last day of fiscal year 2022 was 204.4 rupees, which decreased by 31% in just seven months and closed at 267.9 rupees against one dollar on January 31.
This had a huge impact on the government’s external debt calculations. The external debt of the federal government increased to 20 thousand 700 billion rupees at an alarming rate of 23.5% in seven months.
While there was a net increase of 3,900 rupees in external loans, which is mainly due to the depreciation of the currency.
On the other hand, the Pakistani rupee weakened further. The dollar interbank price reached 279 rupees while the open rate reached the level of 281 to 290 rupees.
According to economic experts, the pressure on the rupee is increasing due to the fact that the IMF program has not been restored and the country’s foreign exchange reserves have not increased significantly.
