Pakistan Government Bonds

In Pakistan, the development of money market and bond market was initiated in late 1990s after the liberalization reforms; however, Pakistan's bond market has developed at a slow pace as compared to other countries. Like other emerging markets, most of the debt financing is done through bank borrowings. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) the domestic bonds outstanding were 30 percent of the GDP, equivalent to PKR 5.8 trillion as of June 2012. This consists mainly of government bonds, as the corporate market is yet to develop. Government bond market gained momentum after the introduction of Pakistan Investment Bonds (PlBs) in 2000, which helped to streamline the auction of Government Securities and to develop secondary market for the Government Paper. SBP introduced selective Primary Dealer System (PD) in 2000. In 2001 KlBOR/KIBlD rates were introduced to provide inter-bank call money curve. Outstanding T-bills are roughly PKR 2.4 trillion as of June 2012 out of which banks hold 75 percent worth of short term paper. Outstanding PIB amount is PKR 974 billion, out of which 52 percent of holding are with banks.