KARACHI: Moody’s Investors Service (Moody’s) has placed the government of Pakistan’s local and foreign currency long term issuer and senior unsecured B3 ratings under review for downgrade. This comes as a result of the growing expectation regarding the government requesting bilateral sector debt service relief under the recently announced G20 initiative. Moody’s has placed the B3 foreign currency senior unsecured ratings for the Third Pakistan International Sukuk Co Ltd under review for downgrade. This suggests that, for the countries that elect to seek official sector debt service relief, the initiative may also lead to the suspension of payments or renegotiation of private sector debt service obligations. As a result, Moody’s projects the government’s debt burden to reach around 85-90% of GDP in fiscal 2020.

Source: Pakistan Today May 14, 2020 16:07 UTC