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Ahmad also highlighted that Pakistan’s external debt nearly doubled from $55 billion to $100 billion between 2015 and 2022 without a corresponding rise in reserves. Since 2022, however, public external debt has remained broadly unchanged while SBP’s reserves have climbed from $2.9 billion to $14.5 billion, aided by $8.4 billion in market purchases during the last fiscal year. His remarks came a day after Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal blamed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Pakistan’s highest unemployment rate in 21 years. Unemployment has risen to 7.1 per cent, while the World Bank estimates 44.7 per cent of Pakistanis now live below the poverty line.
State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor Jameel Ahmad has warned that the country’s existing economic growth model “can no longer sustain” its population of 250 million (25 crore). “Our business cycles are shortening and as such, our current growth model simply cannot sustain a country of over 250 million people,” he remarked at the Pakistan Business Council’s Dialogue on the Economy on Wednesday, according to The Express Tribune.