Pressure mounts on Dar to stop ‘managing’ exchange rate

As Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to an alarming level — not even sufficient enough to cover three weeks’ worth of imports — the financial sector has asked Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to stop ‘managing’ the rupee-dollar parity, which is one of the key conditions set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for resuming stalled talks for the release of a $1.12 billion tranche. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday announced that an IMF mission would come to Pakistan in two or three days. Pressure is now mounting on the finance minister from stakeholders to stop efforts to get control over the exchange rate artificially as this policy has resulted in three types of exchange rates — interbank, open market and grey — that have practically been fuelling economic instability. However, sources claimed that the finance minister is not ready to accept the single exchange rate market.