ISLAMABAD – The Finance Division has termed as inaccurate and misleading anews report appearing in a section of the press contending that thegovernment’s foreign borrowing increased by $10.4 billion from 18th August2018 to 30th September 2019.
In an official statement released on Thursday, the Finance Divisioncontended that the report was not only misleading but was also against thenational interest as it sent erroneous signals to the markets, which couldhave had potentially negative consequences for Pakistan’s rapidlystabilising economy.
Earlier, a media outlet had reported that the government “has admitted toobtaining a total of $10.37 billion loans from different countries andinternational lenders until September 30, 2019”.
According to the report, Economic Affairs Minister Hammad Azhar had toldthe National Assembly that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insadf (PTI) governmentsecured $10.37 billion from various governments and internationalinstitutions from August 14, 2018, to September 30, 2019.
“It is critical to understand that the figure of $10.4 billion is ‘grossinflows’ and does not take into account the debt retirement of $9.1 billionduring the same period,” the Finance Division stated on Thursday.
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“For the sake of clarity, it must be noted that reporting gross externaldebt inflows only presents one side of the picture, ignoring outflows onaccount of repayments, which are the other side of the picture, and aprerequisite to calculate the net or actual increase in externalindebtedness of the country.”
The statement further noted that while gross external public debtdisbursement was $10.4 billion during 18th August 2018 to 30th September2019, deducting the $9.1 billion which the government paid back during thesaid period leaves a net figure of $1.3 billion.
“Therefore, the real addition in external public debt under the presentgovernment was $1.3 billion, not $10.4 billion as claimed by a section ofthe press,” it added.
