According to money central at msn, Pakistani Rupee was traded at US $68.25 today. Just around January of 2008, Rupee was quite steady at around 61 rupees to a dollar but in the past 4 months, the depreciation has been alomst 10%. That too at a time, when US dollar is also weakening as compared to other major curencies of the world. Following graph shows Rupee’s one year comparison versus the US dollar.
On May 23, 2008, ONE Unit of other currencies was equal to following number of rupees:
1 Australian Dollar = 65.64 Pakistani Rupees
1 Bangladesh Takka = 0.99 Pakistani Rupees
1 Canadian Dollar = 69.09 Pakistani Rupees
1 Chinese Yuan = 9.84 Pakistani Rupees
1 Euro = 107.73 Pakistani Rupees
1 Indian Rupee = 1.6 Pakistani Rupees
1 Iraqi Dinar = 0.06 Pakistani Rupee
1 Kuwaiti Dinar = 257.58 Pakistani Rupees
1 Saudi Rial = 18.23 Pakistani Rupees
1 Thai Baht = 2.12 Pakistani Rupees
1 UAE Dirhan = 18.61 Pakistani Rupees
1 Zimbabwe Dollar = 0.002 Pakistani Rupees
Following graph is the 5-year view of Pakistani rupee versus the US dollar. One can easily note the alarmingly sharp decline in the value of Rupee in the last few months.
Following graph shows Rupee’s sharp decline as of August 7, 2008
References:
1. Money central, msn
2. Yahoo Finance
Pakistan is addicted to US Aid, Military Mullah Alliances (MMA), and extreme corruption at all levels. This is a nation killing equation. For Pakistan (or any other country) there is only one way to go and that is DOWN. Look what is happening in US – Republicans were in bed with the neo-cons and religious zealots (the US version of MMA) and now they are in 500 billion dollar hole called war on terror aka the quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every body and his brother hates US. Pakistan is in worse condition, a country without resources, without water, without food, and without a way out! The geo political importance of Pakistan as a sovereign country is waning, the region is fearful of the “Pakistani nuclear assets” falling into wrong hands (Asif Ali Zardari and NAwaz Sharif are not the most trustworthy of the lot, neither is Mush -on his way out he may incite some tasteless mischief like Kargil).
There is but one way out of this hell hole; promise to roll back the nuclear program for food and debt forgiveness. That is the only way for Pakistan to survive.
being an economist at (reserve bank of australia ,senior forex expert magor) and looking at present pakistani eceonomy performance and economic fundamental intrest rates(at sbp website).i personally sent many letters to sbp in the starts of year 2007 telling them “please change ur reserves to euros”.i never got reply until one that said “we know well”.then euro was 1.25 or less per dollar now it reached 1.60 .they could have shielded their money from high oil price formula that what i wanted them to do.bcz euro rises with oil and falls with oil but our sbp is stupid enough to keep us dollar when their eceonomy is melting and all datas are crashing like crazy to please america i guess ! .i m personally mad at sbp and i would say stupid idiots are running sbp.,they don’t have a brain to use.some eceonomist call usa economy the “the falling dagger” i will quote pkr at rs 90 / dollar.why? inflation is 30 yrs high.what does that says… 90/dollar is like the minimum .i won;t be wrong if i say it will reach 100 / dollar, if the inflation trend continues and pakistan stock market does not get back on feets.sbp has just 2 months of money to pay imports that means country has ran out of $ money.i wonder and wonder how is pakistan eceonomy running.seriously it makes me amazed.quoting us dollar at 90 in next 2 months, if pakistan reserves does not get better.i would personally blame all this on sbp .y? cause even iran,india,china,indonesia,malaysia changed resrves into euros y not them.if u want to shield from oil affects , euro is the answer.even now if they buy euros i gurantee u our country would do better.iran made $700 million profits from euro uptrend that means they made a profit of $100 million on $1 billion that means if pakistan bought $20 billion worth of euros say euro 15 billion , they got 3 billion free now 10+3= 13 billion $ that means more 3 $ billion more.and plus they would get free from oil crisis.stupid people running sbp .that all i can say.i sent those idiots e-mails from my RBA wesbite account and they knew well i was a well known economist.i m really frausated at sbp ignorance.
A graph is added to the post showing Rupee’s sharp decline in the last few months. Graph is current as of August 7, 2008
The unabated slide of Pakistani rupee continues. today’s dawn reports 1 US dollar = 73.3 Rupee.
Unfortunate as it may be, there appaears to be no quick fix for the burgeoning value of the pakistani rupee.
The problem appears to arise from an overwhelming array of investment in a military dictatorship which is only too happy to fill the pockets of its senior military personnel.
A high production cost base of the exported goods which is having a damning effect on the pakistani economy. Not to forget the worsening effect of local investors shifting their monies to areas away from local stocks which is killing the stock market. if you can clearly call it one.
It hurts even more to say that if it was not for our ex-pat communities bailing out the country at every devaluation of the rupee that it would be in an even worse position it is at present.
I can only see further devaluation of the rupee to 85-99 USD if not higher in the short to medium term.