August 19, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-us-Sani 20, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Aug 18: The London-based international credit rating agency, The Standard and Poor’s, has decided to upgrade Pakistan’s credit rating, claimed Dr. Ashfaque Hasan Khan, economic advisor to the ministry of finance who returned home on Monday from a short visit to London.

“I met S&P’s Managing Director David Beers and his deputy Kevin Dali in London and was informed that their agency has started the process of upgrading the rating for Pakistan to be announced shortly,” he said while talking to Dawn.

Dr. Khan, who is also the chairman of debt reduction office, said the credit agency believed that Pakistan had made visible improvement in four vital areas, which were balance of payment position, reduction in local and foreign debt burden, improvement in the fiscal budget and better GDP growth rate compared to other countries of the region.

During his brief visit to London, which was basically meant for attending the meeting of Pak Libya Holding Company, Dr. Khan met a number of leading bankers and senior representatives of foreign investment companies.

Responding to a question, he said that today there was a great interest about Pakistan in the international capital market specially regarding the bonds which the government planned to float before the end of the year to borrow about 250-500 million dollars.

The economic adviser said that Ashmore Investment House of London, which was managing $5.5 billion portfolio investment, has expressed its willingness not only to help attract foreign investment in Pakistan but also to float bonds on behalf of Pakistan.

Similarly, he said, he met Managing Director of ABN Amro Bank Mr. Niall Cameron, deputy chief, Capital Market of Credit Swiss First Boston, Mr. Peter Malik and Vice Chairman Citibank Mr. Nelson and some other important people.

Generally, he said, he briefed them about the current state of the economy and found a lot of interest on their part specially to float bonds for Pakistan.

“One of the purposes of my visit was to reintroduce Pakistan in the international bond market,” he said. He said he also told foreign investors that there existed a better investment climate in Pakistan for making new investment.

Pakistan’s short and long term credit rating by S&P is ‘B’ with outlook sustainable, while India’s outlook is negative due to its big budget deficit and increasing public debt. However, India’s long and short term credit rating is ‘B’ like that of Pakistan.