ISLAMABAD : Despite improvement in the country s security situation and the economy growing at an eight-year high, Pakistan risks default as 42 percent of its foreign debt, around $50 billion, is due in 2016, reports Bloomberg.
Pakistan “does not face any difficulty in respect of its debt servicing obligations”, the finance ministry said in response to a recent Bloomberg red flag regarding the country’s debt burden, reported DunyaNews.
Granted, “improving growth prospects, lower inflation and smaller budget deficit” can be marketed as ‘achievements’ of the last fiscal or so. And the ministry’s line about being “committed to successfully implementing its IMF macroeconomic stability programme” also added a touch of political correctness to the picture.
But scratch the surface a little and the foreign publications apprehensions become understandable, just as the government’s claims leave a little something to be desired.
The country might not face immediate threats of default, and the finance ministry has rightly been quick to deflect such assumptions. Bloomberg is taken seriously by all sorts of international investments, and this piece could hardly have come at a worse time for Pakistan; just when it was wooing investors to park funds here.
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