ISLAMABAD: Adviser to the Finance Minister Khurram Schehzad on Sunday highlighted the latest data from Bloomberg, which shows that Pakistan has emerged as one of the world’s top-performing countries in reducing its sovereign default risk, marking one of the sharpest global declines.

“As per the latest data posted by Bloomberg, Pakistan stands out globally as the 2nd most improved economy in terms of reduction in sovereign default risk, as measured by CDS-implied default probability globally,” Mr Schehzad said in a post on X He said that within Global Emerging Market (EM) rankings, Pakistan was second only to Turkey in default risk reduction, noting the country has recorded one of the most significant drops over the last 15 months.

Pakistan is the only country in the EM sample showing consistent quarterly improvement over the past year, Mr Schehzad said. He added that the default probability has decreased by a “massive 2,200 basis points”.

“This marks the sharpest decline among major EMs, ahead of South Africa 3 per cent, El Salvador 2pc,” he wrote.

In contrast, countries like Argentina, Egypt, and Nigeria have seen their default risks rise, Mr Schehzad said.

This sharp decline “signals strengthening investor confidence, underpinned by macroeconomic stabilisation, structural reforms, timely debt servicing, staying the course with IMF programme and positive ratings actions from S&P, Fitch, and Moodys”, Mr Schehzad said.

Published in Dawn, October 6th, 2025