Pakistan

Pakistan – February 2022

Pakistan lags behind its Middle East and North African (MENA) counterparts on measures of per capita income and creditworthiness. Infrastructure investments through projects in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and significant increases in power supply supports a stronger growth outlook than regional countries, while measures of the business climate are in line with peers. The government’s securing of a 39-month US$6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) arrangement in July 2019 from the IMF supports external financing needs and the government’s reform agenda; however, the pandemic has exacerbated existing structural issues. Weak public and external finances and geopolitical tensions remain key risks to the outlook.

The above chart is a cobweb diagram showing how a country measures up on four important dimensions of economic performance—per capita income, annual GDP growth, business climate rank and creditworthiness. Per capita income is in current US dollars. Annual GDP growth is the five-year average forecast between 2022 and 2026. Business climate is measured by the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business ranking of 190 countries. Creditworthiness attempts to measure a country's ability to honour its external debt obligations and is measured by its OECD country credit risk rating. The chart shows not only how a country performs on the four dimensions, but how it measures up against other countries in the region.