Pakistan economic crisis: Country's debts, liabilities exceed the size of its GDP

A report by the State Bank of Pakistan has thrown up some very worrying numbers for the Imran khan government. 

It's been a year since Imran Khan stormed to power promising 'Naya Pakistan'.

But the economy continues to remain in doldrums, and according to experts, it is only getting worse.

In the latest report by the State Bank of Pakistan, for the first time in twenty years, the total debt and liabilities of Pakistan have exceeded the size of its economy.

Pakistan's debt and liability have peaked to a record of 40.2 trillion Pakistani rupees, which is the equivalent of $ 256 billion.

This is a sharp increase of over 34% in just the last 1 year that Imran khan has been in charge.

Watch: No economic turnaround under Imran Khan government

At the time when Imran khan had taken charge, the total debt and liabilities of Pakistan hovered around 30 trillion Pakistani rupees, which was roughly $191 billion.

The last time, when the Pakistani economy was in such dire straits was in the year 2000.

In the month of march earlier in the year, Imran Khan had stated that he would like to reduce the total debt and liabilities from 30 trillion Pakistani rupees to 20 million Pakistani rupees. But exactly, the opposite of this has happened.

Due to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, and increasing investments by china, Pakistan has been in the grip of a debt crisis for almost over a decade. 

All through his campaigning, Imran khan had trained his guns on Nawaz Sharif and the PML(N) for getting Pakistan into the debt trap. 

Imran Khan made all the right noises and started his tenure by auctioning off fancy government cars and buffaloes as an austerity measure

he also has made regular visits to Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, china etc to get investments into his country.

Saudi Arabia has promised $20 billion, the United Arab Emirates has promised $6.2 billion, while Malaysia has promised $900 million of investments into Pakistan.

But none of this has made any improvements into the dwindling finances of Pakistan.

To stress on his point, Imran khan has today tweeted a video of the Nathia Gali rest house which he claims was earlier a symbol of colonialism, which cost the Pakistani exchequer crores of rupees to maintain, has now been turned into a source of income for the people of Pakistan. It has now been turned into a hotel.

Imran Khan's tenure has been high on rhetoric, and catchy slogans such as 'Naya Pakistan'. But on the ground for the common people, there has been no economic turnaround. Galloping inflation of essential food items has hit the common man pretty hard.

On the international front, Pakistan has accepted another bailout package of $ 6 billion from the IMF on terms which demand more austerity. 

While the FATF in its plenary session in October will be meeting to decide if Pakistan should be downgraded to the blacklist.