Revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme was much awaited in order to deal with the dwindling foreign exchange reserves and continuous depreciation in Pakistani Rupee against the US dollar.
On 31st August, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received proceeds of USD 1.16 billion (equivalent of SDR 894 million) after the IMF Executive Board completed the combined seventh and eight review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan. Unfortunately, Rupee has still not shown any sign of strength against the greenback.
Read more: Revival of IMF programme is not an end in itself: PM
Pakistan’s rupee continued to sustain losses against the US dollar for the fourth successive session, settling with a depreciation of 0.9% on Wednesday. As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the rupee closed at 223.42 after declining by Rs2 against the greenback.
It was stated that if an agreement with the IMF is achieved, the roads of development will be opened, but the dollar is now decreasing by one to one and a half rupees each day.
کہا گیا کہ IMF سے معاہدہ ہو گیا تو ترقی کی راہیں کھل جائیں گی لیکن آج ڈالر روزانہ کی بنیاد پر ایک سے ڈیڑھ روپیہ گر رہا ہے، بجلی کی قیمت میں بدترین اضافہ ہو رہا ہے اور مہنگائی 45 فیصد کیساتھ ریکارڈ سطح ہر قرضہ لیا جارہا ہے۔ @Hammad_Azhar pic.twitter.com/uYxwDVTRdp
— PTI (@PTIofficial) September 7, 2022
Former Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar also discussed the current situation where Rupee is continuously depreciating, and inflation is reaching new heights.
“Government shared during the budget that it anticipates inflation to be at 11.5 percent. I held a press conference at that time said clearly that inflation will be in the range of 20 to 30 percent,” Hammad Azhar said.
He added, “today the government as well as the SBP is stating that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation will be 29.7 percent.”
He also explained that if we look at the inflation on the basis of Sensitive Price Index (SPI), in which food items and fuel are included, inflation is at 45 percent which is further soaring.
He denoted this discrepancy as deceiving to the public.
Hammad Azhar also responded to the criticism on Imran Khan by the current government, “by the extent current government has increased gas, electricity and fuel prices, Imran Khan did not bring them to this level in his 3.5-year period,” he said.
Moreover, he also mentioned that the rupee has been devalued by Rs.82 in last five months which was never the case during Imran Khan’s regime.
Moving ahead, he talked about the government debt which has been soared to the historical levels since the “imported government” took charge.
He concluded by saying, “apparently they took the charge as being very competent and experienced.”