30% of SBP debt retired before its slated maturity in 2029, says advisor to finance minister
News Agency
Islamabad
Pakistan has retired Rs2.6 trillion in public debt well ahead of schedule, Advisor to Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad announced on Sunday. In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Schehzad revealed that around Rs1.6 trillion was paid back to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in just 59 days—an achievement he termed as “historic fiscal discipline”. The finance ministry, he said, repaid Rs500 billion on June 30, 2025, followed by a second repayment of Rs1,133 billion on August 29, bringing total early SBP repayments to Rs1,633 billion.
He also highlighted a previous Rs1,000 billion repayment to the domestic commercial market during the first half of the fiscal year, calling it Pakistan’s first-ever advanced domestic debt retirement operation.
“Including both the central bank and commercial portions, the total early debt retirement in less than one year now comes to over PKR 2,600 billion — an unprecedented scale and decisive action in the country’s fiscal history,” the advisor stated.
