ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the country will have to repay $21 billion foreign loans in next financial year, 2022-23.
Miftah was speaking to journalists at Karachi airport today before leaving for Doha, Qatar, to participate in the concluding round of talks with IMF. He said that the govt-IMF teams are expected to sign loan agreement by 25th of May.
According to available information, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League (N) have borrowed $101.71 billion foreign loans in last nine years.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government seems to be on top of the list with $52 billion borrowings in three years eight months. The PTI government, nonetheless, returned $36 billion foreign loans during its incomplete tenure.
Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) is in second place with external borrowings of $49.76 billion dollars in its five years term (from 2013-2018). The PML(N) government returned $27 billion foreign loans in its five years tenure.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was in third place with a total of $25 billion borrowings in five years and the government of the PPP returned foreign loans worth $14 billion.
According to the date of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Pakistan’s external debt and liabilities increased to an all-time high of $130.6 billion by end-December 2021.
During the PTI government, foreign debt rose by $35.30 billion or 37 percent (till December 2021), while it was $ 95.2 billion when the PTI government came to power.
During the PML-N tenure, the external debt, nonetheless, surged by around $34 billion. The foreign debt was around $61 billion when PML(N) formed its government in 2013.
