ISLAMABAD: Pakistan total public (domestic and foreign both) debt has grown by almost 60 per cent to Rs22.8 trillion from Rs14.3tr in four and a half years of the current government’s tenure to December 2017, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2017-18 released on Thursday.

In spite of this hefty increase in stock, the total public debt remains 66.3pc of GDP (gross domestic product) compared with 64pc of GDP in 2013 because 53.7pc growth in the size of the economy.

The numbers shared by the government show that gross domestic debt rose by over 62pc from Rs9.5tr to Rs15.4tr and external debt by almost 53pc from Rs4.8tr to Rs7.4tr.

The survey however contends that the government debt remains 60.7pc of GDP or Rs20.8tr, slightly up from 60.2pc or Rs13.5 billion in 2013.

The Prime Minister’s Adviser on Finance Miftah Ismail complained that the government had received unfair commentary with regard to increasing public debt stock on two counts. First, the total government debt remained within manageable limits as a ratio of the size of the economy. Second, a chunk of new debt raised by the PML-N government was used to pay off the old domestic and external debt.

“Apart from paying off the old debt, the loans obtained by us were used to set up new power stations to eliminate blackouts,” he said.Domestic and foreign debt servicing was recorded at Rs980 billion during the first six months of the present fiscal against the budgeted amount of Rs1689bn for the whole year. Debt interest payments of Rs678bn constituted 69pc of total debt servicing on account of higher domestic debt stock. Overall, debt servicing stood 41.1pc of the government revenue and 38.5pc of current expenditure.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2018