The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that Pakistan’s rising debt might soon reach  Rs82 trillion at the end of the ongoing financial year which will end on June 30, 2024, media reports said.

The IMF staff has also assessed that the pace of accumulation of total public debt and liabilities would continue to persist, which might go up to Rs92.24 trillion in FY2024-25, reported The News International.

Pakistan and the IMF have struck a staff-level agreement by evolving consensus on the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for presentation before the Fund’s Executive Board for release of $700 million tranche under the $3 billion Standby Arrangement (SBA) program, the newspaper reported.

The fiscal framework agreed between the two sides showed that the general government and government guaranteed debt, including the IMF’s, was estimated to rise up to Rs81.836 billion till end of June 2024, which stood at Rs77.9 trillion till end of September 2023, The News International reported.

The total public debt and liabilities stood at Rs68 trillion in FY22-23. This data on public debt and liabilities shows that it would go up by Rs11.8 trillion in the current fiscal year.