Pakistan's external liabilities - external debt plus foreign exchange liabilities - totalled $36.557 billion at the end of March 2006, indicating an increase of 3.72 percent or $1.312 billion since December 30, 2005, said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Of the total liabilities, the external debt of the country has surged by $1.38 billion (4.12 percent) to $34.90 billion during the third quarter of 2005-06 against $33.523 billion recorded at the end of December 2005.
During the first nine months (July-March) 2005-06, total external liabilities increased by $723 million against $35.834 billion recorded by end June 2005. Thus, the external debt increased by $866 million during the period under review.
According to the SBP provisional data, the country's public and publicly guaranteed debt has been on the rise for the last four years.
On June 30, 2005, it was $31.084 billion as compared to $29.875 billion of June 2004. And now, during the first nine months of this fiscal, it stands at $31.82 billion with an increase of $737 million compared to June 2005.
In public and publicly guaranteed debt, the medium and long-term debt (more than one year) during the period under review augmented by $800 million to $31.613 billion as it was $30.813 billion at the end of June 2005.
According to the break-up of the medium and long-term debt, the multilateral debt by end-March 2006 grew by $518 million to $15.876 billion; Euro bonds/Saindak bonds by $642 million to $1.908 billion; and bilateral debt up by $126 million to $931 million compared to June 2005 when it stood at $15.358 billion, $1.266 billion and $805 million, respectively.
While during the period under review, the volume of Paris Club debt declined by $418 million to $12.596 billion, military debt by $51 million to $137 million and commercial loan/credit declined by $17 million to $165 million as compared to $13.813 billion, $188 million and $182 million in June 2005.
The significant feature of the SBP data was that the short-term external debt (less than one-year) from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) also declined to $208 million during March 2005-06, as at the end of last fiscal year, it was $271 million.
The private non-guaranteed debts (more than one-year) during the period increased to $1.588 billion from $1.342 billion at the end of FY05.
The SBP data also depict a decline of about $117 million in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) debt. During the first three-quarters of FY06, as it was $1.494 billion compared to $1.611 billion in the final quarter of last FY05.
The foreign exchange liabilities, excluding foreign exchange bearer certificates, foreign currency bearer certificates and Dollar bearer certificates (which stand at $7 million) declined by $143 million during the period under study to $1.654 billion from $1.797 billion at the end June 2005.
Of this, during the period under review the special US dollar bonds declined by $121 million to $300 million, as it was $421 million at the end of FY05. Besides, foreign currency bonds (NHA/NC) declined by $22 million to $4,109 million from $131 million end June last fiscal year.
While the central bank deposits, NBP/BOC deposits and other liabilities (Swap) remained unchanged for the last three years at $700 million, $500 million and $45 million, respectively.