Finance minister Miftah Ismail on Sunday said that the value of the Pakistani rupee is “far greater” than what it is right now, amid a continuous depreciation of the currency against the US dollar in the recent weeks.
Amid a dollar shortage and concerns over a delay in an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme, the Pakistani rupee witnessed its worst month in July since 1972.
“I really think — although I never like to speculate on the currency market — but I really think that the rupee’s true value is far greater [than what it is right now],” the finance minister said during a press conference held to speak about Pakistan’s economic path forward, in Islamabad.
After claiming that the pressure on rupee will vanish soon last week, Miftah once again predicted that the PKR should see some improvement “in the two weeks”.
He explained that in the past two months, Pakistan had to part with “a billion and another billion”, which put pressure on the local currency.
Ismail said that efforts will be geared towards more dollars coming in daily and fewer leaving the country next month. “With our efforts to reduce imports and InshaAllah, with the daily rise in incoming dollars versus a decline in outgoing units, there will be a surplus [of dollars],” he said.
“This will lead to a reduced pressure [on the rupee] and the dollar’s value against the rupee should then see a slight drop,” the minister added.
Ismail said that he has hope that the “next two weeks will InshaAllah be better”.
He cautioned, though, that although this is his view since he believes “the fundamentals are in Pakistan’s favour”, but “speculation and sentiments also play a role in this”.
In criticism of the past rulers, said that the PTI-led government increased the country’s debt by Rs20,000 billion in the last three and a half years.
More to follow.
