Pakistan predicted to be world’s fastest-growing Muslim economy in 2017

While the successful closure of IMF’s programme itself was a testament that Pakistan has done well on macroeconomic stability, there are a number of other forecasts about the country’s positive economic outlook. The Asian Development Bank recently raised the growth projections for 2017 to 5.2 per cent, while The Economist termed Pakistan the fastest-growing Muslim economy.
On the capital market front, the announcement of Pakistan’s inclusion in Morgan Stanley’s Emerging Market Index from May 2017 has started to make waves, with the staggering growth in equity markets in recent months, with KSE-100 outperforming not only the frontier markets that Pakistan is currently a part of but also the emerging market group that the country is about to join. The news of Pakistan Stock Exchange’s takeover by a Chinese consortium with Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange as partners has further strengthened investor confidence.