Is PAKISTAN DEFAULT???

 

Pakistan is at risk of default

A balance of payments crisis is tipping a fragile economy over the edge

Feb 7th 2023 | DADU, ISLAMABAD, KARACHI AND LAHORE

Pakistanis are accustomed to unreliable utilities. Even in affluent neighbourhoods of Karachi and Lahore, residents install diesel generators for power cuts and spare water tanks for when the taps run dry. Yet the events of January 23rd were still shocking. A surge in voltage at a power station in southern Sindh province led to almost the entire country of 230m people losing power for most of the day. Factories, hospitals and mobile-phone networks shut down in many areas. In Lahore, the evening’s trading and promenading—a time when Pakistan’s second-largest city feels most exhilaratingly alive—was conducted in darkness and a pale glow of mobile phones. Only at midnight did some streetlights come on.

The blackout is indicative of an economic crisis severe even by the standards of a country well-known for them. Pakistan is still suffering the devastating effects of monsoon flooding last summer that displaced 8m people and cost the country an estimated $30bn in damage and lost output. Tens of thousands remain homeless. Rocketing inflation, fuelled by global factors and economic mismanagement, is making their situation harder. Annual inflation reached 27.6% in January, the highest level since 1975. The rupee is crashing. It traded at an all-time low of 275 to the dollar this week, down from 230 in mid-January and 175 a year ago. With foreign exchange reserves dwindling, the country faces its worst balance of payments crisis in peacetime.