Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said there is less than a 10% probability of Pakistan’s default.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar ruled out the risks of Pakistan’s default and said, “Bloomberg pitches Pakistan’s one-year probability of default at a low of 10% as opposed to a highly dubious number of 93% circulated by an unscrupulous local political leader a few days ago.” He also said that “Pakistan will InshaAllah continue to honour its all financial commitments on time”
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A few days ago, Finance Ishaq Dar ruled out the possibility of default and shortage of fuel reserves, terming the speculations ‘baseless rumors being spread on political goals’
Addressing a press conference via video link, the finance minister noted that he was aware of rumors that the country would be unable to pay $1 billion in December against the maturity of the five-year Sukuk, or Islamic bonds.
Ishaq Dar assured that Pakistan would not default and would be able to meet its upcoming $1 billion dollar bond payments in December. “We have never defaulted before. The bond will be paid and even arrangements have been made in principal for upcoming payments in the next year,” he added.
“Such baseless rumors for political gains are irresponsible,” the finance minister maintained, adding that such statements against Pakistan’s economy were against the country’s interest.
The Finance minister further said that another rumor was spread about Pakistan’s Credit Default Swap and that the risk for repayment had increased to 75 percent. “Our international bonds have very small transactions and technically there should be no impact on them,” he added.
“If it maintains this rate, the current account deficit stood at $5 billion to $6 billion, down from the projected level of $12 billion,” he said, adding that the current account was something they were keeping a very keen eye on and were managing various aspects of it.
