New Delhi, Jan 1 (IANS) The widely quoted Corruption Perceptions Index, prepared annually by Transparency International, has ranked Pakistan 135 out of 180 countries for 2024, according to an article in the Pakistan media.

There is a need to see the change in ranking of Pakistan over the years, as the incidence of corruption has been highlighted in a recent report by the IMF, the article in the financial newspaper Business Recorder said.

In 2015, Pakistan was placed at 117 out of 168 countries, equivalent to the 70th percentile. Therefore, there has been a worsening in Pakistan’s ranking over the last decade. This can be seen as a justification for the IMF report.

Pakistan also has a low rating in the Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Programme, which is considered generally the most appropriate index to assess the overall economic state of a country.

The HDI has three components of education, health, and per capita income. It is an indictment of Pakistan, as it has the lowest ranking of 168 among South Asian countries. This ranking places the country in the 87th percentile and categorises Pakistan with a low level of human development. Among the three indicators, the worst ranking of Pakistan is in education.

A comparison is made with Pakistan’s HDI ranking in 2015. It was placed at the ranking of 147 out of 188 countries, equivalent to the 78th percentile. It is now at the 87th percentile. Therefore, Pakistan has performed poorly in human development over the last decade, the article pointed out.

This article also looked at Pakistan’s credit rating based on the assessment by S&P, Moody’s, and the Morningstar DBRS. The rating scale of each agency is from the best of AAA to the lowest at DD. The ratings of a country by each agency are combined to produce an overall score, TE, which ranges from 0 to 100. Altogether, the latest assessment includes 155 countries.

The latest rating of Pakistan is of B- by S&P and Caa by Moody’s. No rating has been given to Pakistan by the DBRS. Overall, the score, TE, of Pakistan is 21 out of 100. The resulting ranking of Pakistan out of the 155 countries is 131. This is the 84th percentile in the ranking; the higher the percentile, the worse the ranking. Therefore, Pakistan still has a relatively low credit rating.

Hopefully, with the successful continuation of the IMF Programme, this rating will improve further in 2026, along with further enhancement in foreign exchange reserves, the article added.

–IANS

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