ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar Tuesday congratulated Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the entire nation on the country’s credit rating improvement by Standard and Poor.
The Standard and Poor’s has improved Pakistan’s long-term credit rating from B negative to B with stable outlook.
This comes as a result of the government’s improved policy-making, strong performance of the economy and the good prospects for the country’s fiscal and external positions, said a press statement issued by the Finance Ministry.
Standard and Poor’s has highlighted that Pakistan continues to benefit from improving governance under the present government – whose reforms programme has helped to restore macro-economic stability, reduce fiscal and external vulnerabilities, and promote growth-supporting reforms that have the potential to improve living standards.
Standard and Poor’s – while issuing Pakistan’s revised rating – has also revised its forecasts of average annual GDP growth to 5% over 2016-2019 from the earlier estimate of 4.7%. It also revised Pakistan’s debt to fall below 60% of GDP by 2018.
The upward revision in rating, the Agency contends, also reflects the government’s continued focus on closing infrastructure shortfalls, reforms in the energy sector, gradual gains in fiscal consolidation and beefed up foreign exchange reserves.
