An agreement on the staff level with the IMF is anticipated for the following week: Despite persistent rumours to the contrary, Dar’s Finance Minister has stated that economic indicators are currently trending in the desirable direction.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan were in the process of concluding their negotiations when Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated on Thursday that a staff-level agreement with the IMF was set to be inked.
The minister also denied “malicious rumours that Pakistan may default” spread by “anti-Pakistan groups” on his official Twitter account.
Dar insisted that the “facts” were contradicted by the “totally untrue” default rumours.
He explained that despite all external due payments being made, the State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange holdings were growing and are now approximately US $1 billion greater than they were four weeks ago.
He continued, “International commercial banks have begun giving facilities to Pakistan.
All economic indices, according to the minister, were “slowly moving in the correct direction”.
The announcement follows the Pakistani rupee’s 8.29% (or Rs24.07) drop to a new record low of Rs290.18 against the US dollar on Thursday in the interbank market.
On the second day in a row after the government reinstated the market-based currency rate at the IMF’s request, the rupee continued to lose considerable value.
This morning, the dollar touched a record low as importers rushed to buy dollars, while exporters apparently held off on selling the dollar in anticipation of a higher exchange rate.
According to reports in the market, the IMF wants the value of the rupee on the interbank market to be equal to the value of the currency on the black market.
