No fresh borrowings from SBP: Finance Ministry

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Finance here on Thursday clarified that there had been no fresh borrowings by the government from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). “Factually, the government has been retiring its previous stock of debt with the SBP on its maturity,” the Ministry said while responding to news circulating on social media whereby an impression was being created that the government had borrowed from the central bank.

The Ministry termed it grossly incorrect that depicted a limited understanding of the monetary variables. “As reported in the monetary tables (M2), the government’s borrowing from the SBP for budgetary purposes was calculated as the difference between the government’s stock of borrowing from the SBP and its deposits with the central bank. Therefore, net borrowing number may change due to fluctuation in cash balance with SBP and other accounting conventions,” it said.