PM hails report on drop in Pakistan’s default risk

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Saturday expressed satisfaction over the Bloomberg report on stability in Pakistani economy.

He said, “The report acknowledges important institutional reforms in various sectors, successful agreement with the International Monetary Fund and timely loan repayments, which are definitely evidence of improvement in the government’s economic situation.

“Pakistan is among the few countries that, according to Bloomberg report, showed the most improvement in the economy in the last 12 months,” he said adding, “Pakistan is moving fast towards its strong economic future.”

He said the improved economic indicators were the result of consistent hard work and dedication of the government’s economic team.

Earlier Bloomberg, citing data by a senior finance official, reported that Pakistan has recorded the world’s sharpest decline in sovereign default risk over the past year, topping Bloomberg Intelligence’s Global Emerging Market (EM) Rankings for credit risk improvement.

The data, published by Bloomberg’s research arm, showed that Pakistan’s credit default swap-implied probability of default fell from 59 percent to 47 percent over the past 12 months, a drop of 11 percentage points. The change marks the biggest reduction among tracked emerging markets, outpacing countries like Argentina, Tunisia and Nigeria, as default risk rose in others such as Egypt, Gabon and Turkiye.

Credit default swaps (CDS) are insurance-