Pakistan could default without IMF bailout, warns Moody’s

Pakistan could default without an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout as its financing options beyond June are uncertain, the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investor Service said on Tuesday. “We consider that Pakistan will meet its external payments for the remainder of this fiscal year ending in June,” Grace Lim, a sovereign analyst with the ratings company in Singapore, told Bloomberg, according to a Dawn.com report. “However, Pakistan’s financing options beyond June are highly uncertain. Without an IMF programme, Pakistan could default given its very weak reserves,” he said. Meanwhile, Federal Min­ister for Power Khu­r­ram Dastgir Khan told Adil Shahzeb of Dawn News that the failure to sign a staff-level agreem­ent between the IMF and Pakistan could lead to the country’s increased reliance on China, which the US and other Western powers “must take into account”.