Govt plans to raise $1b from int’l market by issuing Sukuk bonds

08/09/2019

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has planned to raise at least one billion dollars from international market by issuing Sukuk bonds in next couple of months that would help in building the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The federal cabinet had already allowed ministry of finance to initiate Medium-Term Notes (MTN) programme covering both Eurobonds and Sukuk. An official of the ministry of finance informed that government has is expecting to raise at least one billion dollars from the Sukuk bonds.

Meanwhile, the government would also issue local Sukuk bonds worth Rs400 billion in next few days. The amount raised from international Sukuk would improve the country’s foreign exchange reserves. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $15.619 billion on 30th August, 2019. The State Bank of Pakistan’s reserves are at $8.280.5 billion. The federal government in annual budget for current fiscal year 2019-20 had projected to generate Rs450 billion (around $2.8 billion) for the Sukuk bonds. The issuance of Sukuk bonds would be part of the government’s plan to borrow $13 billion from foreign sources during ongoing fiscal year.

Pakistan had already made $495 million foreign borrowing from multilateral and bilateral sources during the month of July 2018. The country has borrowed $99.43 million from bilateral sources, $221.83 million from multilateral and $173.3 million from the commercial banks during the first month of the current fiscal year. The latest data of Economic Affairs Division showed that Pakistan had borrowed $494.56 million in last month from banking sources, the government had borrowed $173.3 million loans from Dubai Bank and a consortium of Credit Suisse. The government had projected to borrow $2 billion from commercial banks during current fiscal year.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed that Pakistan’s total debt and liabilities had enhanced by Rs11 trillion just in first year of the incumbent government and stood at Rs40 trillion. The data showed that the PML-N had increased Rs15 trillion into public debt and liabilities in five years, while the PTI added up total debt and liabilities by Rs11 trillion just in one year. The public debt and liabilities stood at Rs29 trillion on June 2018 which have now peaked to Rs40 trillion on June 30, 2019.

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