Do you remember an old adage:
‘ye cheez to Takkay ki nahiN hai’ (This thing is not worth a Takka).
Well, today the tables have turned. What was once true of BD Takka is now true for a Pakistani Rupee. As of today 1 Bangladeshi Takka equals 1.14 Pakistani Rupees . The phenomenal slide of Pakistani Rupee, which started around January 2008 continues unabated. Pakistani rupee is now trading at very close to 80 Rupees to a US dollar. Yahoo Finance was quoting Pakistani rupee at Rs 78.375 to a US dollar on October 6, 2008.
We also had a post on this topic back in May 25, 2008 when Rupee had slid down to Rs 68 for a dollar but this time slide in Rupee’s value seems like the steepest in history of Pakistan. Rupee has lost almost one third of its value in the past 10 months.
The question that everyone is asking is whether current Government is capable of controlling this situation or is it beyond anybody’s control.
Pakistan’s finance Minister (since May 12, 2008) is Mr. Naveed Qamar and atleast I’ve not heard anything from him about what are Government’s plans to bolster Rupee’s value or to stop fast depleting foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan (now down to approx $8.1 bn).
What is happening to a common person among all this turmoil is depicted well in a sher by Anwar Masood.
“jo dil pe guzarti hai raqam karte raheN ge”
kal tum ko bata deN ge raqam kitni bani hai
Reference:
Mr. Banker,
Are you certain that U.S $ will go above 100 in the next few months.Will it ever come below 80 again?
AFTER SEEING THE CURRENT ECONOMIC SITUATION AND THE FAILURE OF CORRUPT GOVERNMENT OF MR10%. THE ONLY THING COMES INTO MY MIND ARE THE LAST WORDS BY FORMER PRESIDENT PERVAIZ MUSHARAFF:
Musharraf made the mistake of NRO, but Pakistanis made the mistake of voting NRO-holders into office. However since the February 18 election already happened, and Musharraf resigned, it is pointless to talk about it.
It is interesting however that Pakistanis are still obsessed with Musharraf, despite a new govt being in power for eight months which has brought no fresh policies.
Free elections does not mean that you withdraw cases against criminals and corrupts, those who have looted the country.
Free elections go hand in hand with free judiciary. But I believe that was too much for Musharraf-Shaukat to digest specially since the chief justice stopped the sale of Pakistan Steel at pittance.
basic math skills are a useful tool for economic analysis.
under shaukat aziz/musharraf’s tenure, pakistan’s reserves went from $0.5bn to $16bn, mkt cap of stock market went from $5bn to around $70bn, govt budget expenditure went from $10bn to