Pakistan's internal and external debt burden has reached a whooping Rs64 trillion, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
This means that every Pakistani citizen owes 250,000 rupees in debt.
The SBP on Thursday released the statistics of the loans taken by the federal government.
The data shows that the federal government took a new loan of Rs2.218 trillion only in August 2023.
This has increased the volume of local loans to Pakistan by 24% to Rs39.792 trillion.
Similarly, the external debt burden on the country has increased from 39% to Rs24.175 trillion.
The SBP's statistics also show that the federal government's debt servicing costs have increased by 44% to Rs1.534 trillion in the first two months of the current fiscal year.
The country's growing debt burden is a major concern for its economy.
The high cost of servicing this debt is straining the government's budget and making it difficult to invest in essential areas such as education and healthcare.
The government has been trying to reduce the country's debt burden, but it has been unsuccessful so far.
Earlier this year, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government announced a new austerity plan aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit and debt burden.
Recently, the trade deficit narrowed to $5.3 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023-24, a decrease of 42% compared to the same period last year.
This was primarily due to a significant decrease in imports.
Besides this, the inflation rate in Pakistan was recorded at 31.4% year-on-year in September from 27.4% in August.
