Public debt crosses Rs 2,536bn

The public debt till mid-January of the current fiscal year (2024-25) has crossed the Rs 2,536bn-mark. According to the Public Debt Management Office, Nepal’s total public debt has exceeded 44 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with Rs 102bn added to the public debt in the past six months.  

At the beginning of the current fiscal that commenced on July 16, public debt stood at Rs 2,434.9bn, and it rose by Rs 102.3bn to reach Rs 2,536.13bn by Jan 15 constituting 44.46 percent of the GDP, the office stated in its report. The contribution of foreign debt to the total public debt is 51.31 percent amounting to Rs 1,301.41bn while the ratio of external debt to the GDP is 22.81 percent.

Of the total public debt, the internal debt liability amounts to 48.68 percent (Rs 1,234.71bn)—21.64 percent of the GDP—whereas external debt makes up 22.81 percent of GDP.

The government has the target of raising Rs 547bn as public debt in the current fiscal and it has raised Rs 240.8bn or 43.89 percent of the annual target by mid-January or the first half-yearly of the current fiscal. The government had the target of raising Rs 330bn as internal debt in the current fiscal and it has raised Rs 181.5bn (54.86 percent).

It has the target of mobilizing Rs 217bn in external loans in 2024-25 and until Jan 15, it has raised
Rs 59.3bn. The government had allocated Rs 402.85bn for reimbursement of the principal and interest of the public debt in the current fiscal. Principal and interest worth Rs 182.4bn has been paid by mid-January, per the report. The expenditure made for paying the principal and interest until Jan 15 is 3.2 percent of the total GDP.