Pakistan's external debt has increased by USD 7 billion in one year, revealed the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan.

According to SBP, the volume of external debt as of June 30, 2019, was USD 106bn, which increased to USD 113bn by June 30, 2020, an increase of USD 7bn in one year.

According to the central bank, external debt was USD 96 billion in September 2018 and the current government borrowed USD 17 billion in new foreign debt. As per the SBP, the current government has borrowed USD 1.7 billion from the IMF, USD 1.2 billion from commercial banks and USD 3.1 billion from various countries.

In September, the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves declined sharply by over one billion dollars during the last four weeks mainly due to external debt servicing.

The SBP's reserves are on decline since September due to scheduled foreign debt payments. According to foreign exchange statistics, the SBP's foreign exchange reserves slipped below $12 billion due to continued external debt payment. SBP's reserves stood at $11.798 billion on October 9, 2020 compared to $12.820 billion on September 11, 2020, depicting a decline of $1.02 billion in a month.