Mian Nauman Kabir says that the traders’ dealing with foreigners doubled soon after the local currency fell down against the US dollar.
LAHORE: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-August 27th, 2020) Continuous falling of rupee value harmed the economy, Pakistan Industrial & Traders Associations Front Chairman Mian Nauman Kabir said on Thursday.
The traders’ deal with the foreigners doubled only after the local Currency fell down against the dollar.
Mian Numan Kabir said that the government would have to take administerative measures besides increasing export and controlling imports, because a large demand for cash was seen in the market.
“The rupee has dropped by 2.9 percent or Rs4.62 against the Dollar during last couple of months,” said Mr. Kabir. PIAF senior vice chairman Nasir Hameed and vice-chairman Javed Siddiqi also appreciated the positive development related to the imports.
According to 24 news, Nauman Kabir said that the CAD fell to $2.97 billion during fiscal year 2019-20 while the import bill fell by 19 percent to $44.57 billion during this period but rupee continued to sink. He said that sharp depreciation of rupee shows that Pakistan is again moving towards a trade deficit regime, which might jack up the current account deficit yet again.
He said that the inflows of workers' remittances also grew by 6.4 percent to $23.12 billion during fiscal year 2019-20 which should have a positive impact on dollar-rupee exchange value. He said that Pakistan has received around $500 million in soft loan from the World Bank last month, helping the rupee to maintain its uptrend, besides bridging the shortfall in budgeted expenditures.
PIAF senior vice chairman Nasir Hameed Khan, terming rupee depreciation against dollar a mysterious development, said that continued fall of rupee is not understandable with the fact that there was no fundamental change in the country's imports during last few months while other economic indicators are also the same for a long time. Nasir Hameed said that in dollar value, the gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 5.22% in FY20. The GDP value in terms of dollar does not reflect the growth pattern, as Pakistan measures economic indicators in rupee value and converts it into dollar term. So, the volatility in the rupee-dollar exchange value would lead to a huge difference between GDP growth in dollar value and real growth in rupee term.
