Observer Report
Islamabad
The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) has clarified that the media reports about increase in foreign loans in the first five months of the current fiscal year were misleading and incorrect.
A press release issued here on Friday by the Ministry said that during the five months (July-November, 2020) the government had received a gross inflow of USD 4.5 billion as against the annual budgetary estimate of USF 14.37 billion. During the same period the government paid back USD 2.9 billion on account of the external debt and its servicing these there was net inflow of just USD 1.6 billion. Budget of the year 2020-2021 estimated that the Government of Pakistan will have to pay USD 11.39 billion.
The press release also presented the fact that during the tenure of the Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf led government (August 2018-November 2020) total external inflows amounted to USD 26.6 billion out of which 23.3 billion were used for external debt servicing therefore the net inflows during this period calculate to USD 3.2 billion. Therefore, any impression that the government is adding up external debt is erroneous.
