ISLAMABAD – One of the top financial assessment firm Bloomberg has claimed that Pakistan’s economy was the most underrated and a pleasant surprise in the world.
In its annual report, Bloomberg’s financial expert Tyler Cowen has picked Pakistan as the most underrated economy and surprisingly, his earlier picks were Germany, Mexico and Phillippines.
Although the analyst understands the fact that the reputation of Pakistan mars overall perception of growth and economy, even then Pakistan was a clear winner in terms of economy.
The 46 percent growth in stock market over a period of four years also contributed to the ‘underrated’ factor that took the columnist by surprise.
What puts Pakistan’s economy on a positive track is the growth rate that was close to five percent after hovering around 4pc. As far as the rate of poverty is concerned, it has fallen by half since 2002 and over the past three years, Pakistan also quashed terrorism to a much larger extent as the rate of terrorist deaths has declined by two-thirds.
In 1991, only 13 percent of Pakistani’s owned a washing machine but current statistics suggest that the figure has swelled to 47 percent hinting at the booming of retail.
Inflation is not of a much threat to the country on a macro level as Pakistan resisted severe economic crises and is still on way to rebuilding its reserves.
The debt-to-GDP ratio is high at more than 60 percent but its settlements with International Monetary Fund helped it wade through turbulence.
Compared to Pakistan’s quintessential rival, India has established a reputation as one of the world’s most dynamic and rapidly growing economies.
With nuclear capability, Pakistan serves as a key to regional and world peace and so it’s economic uplift matters a lot for the international players.
Moreover, Pakistan still needs to exert huge amount of energy toward its education sector apart from extracting money from textiles. Series of problems still affect Pakistan including drought and weather calamity.
Cowen is not that impressed about the multi-billion dollars China-Pakistan economic corridor and terms it speculative but with many problems looming over the economic sector, he sees chances of improvement as well.
It would be a pleasant revelation that the runner up country after Pakistan in terms of most underrated economy turns out to be the United States of America, that is passing through rough patch in terms of political stability as Trump is facing hard days in his execution of plans.
The report concludes that the hidden factors play a pivotal role in uplift of economy and no one predicted about Pakistan’s growth some 15 years ago.
