Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that Pakistan had successfully navigated a difficult economic turnaround through rigorous fiscal, structural and governance reforms, which had restored macroeconomic stability, reinforced investor confidence and earned stable outlook upgrades from major international credit rating agencies, including Fitch, Moody’s and S&P. Speaking at a breakfast meeting in honour of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice-President for South, Central and West Asia Yingming Yang, he reaffirmed government’s commitment to long-term economic transformation, saying administrative bottlenecks were being dismantled through dedicated execution task forces.
There is no doubt that a very difficult period has been left behind due to prudent economic policies, reforms and cooperation of friendly countries as well as multilateral institutions. Global financial institutions are more than willing to cooperate and this is also confirmed by reports that the ADB was developing a new Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for Pakistan covering 2026–2030, with possible resource allocation of $10 billion, as government and lender explored transformative investments, including early groundbreaking of the Main Line-1 (ML-1) railway project. Earlier, in January 2025, the World Bank announced a landmark Country Partnership Framework for a longer duration of ten years (2026-2035), backed by a concessional lending plan from the Bank, which targets economic, social, and environmental resilience, prioritising climate adaptation, sustainable energy, agriculture, and digital infrastructure besides focus on reducing child stunting, improving maternal and child health, and lowering learning poverty in education. Acknowledgement of the economic gains was also made by ADP Vice President, who appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to stabilise the economy and implement robust structural reforms, and underscored the bank’s support for addressing the country’s pressing developmental needs through innovative financing and impactful investments. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has also highlighted positive signs on the economic front by pointing out that tax collection grew by over forty percent during the last two years and government was working to reduce expenditures, including those related to running the civil government and debt servicing. However, much needs to be done to enable the country to stand on its own feet, including genuine and fair expansion of tax net, meaningful growth in industrial and agricultural output with focus on quality and stimulate exports.
