The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry has shown concerns over the falling value of rupees against dollar as rupees has hit an all-time high of 113 against dollar in the open market. It called upon the government to take urgent measures to bring stability in the value of domestic currency as the continuous fall in the value of rupee would bring imported inflation in the country and curtail domestic demand leading to further slowdown in the economic growth of the country.
 

Sheikh Amir Waheed, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that after hectic efforts of the government, Pakistan’s economy was marching towards stabilization. However, he said that the falling value of rupee would push the economy from low inflation and high growth to high inflation and low growth period that would not be in the best interest of the country. He said the slowdown in the economic growth and curtailed domestic demand would adversely affect employment generation and give rise to a new wave of price hike in the country.
 

He said that Pakistan mostly depended on imported capital goods and raw material for industry, but the falling value of rupee would make all imported goods and raw material costly. It would also increase the prices of petroleum products and would further enhance the cost of debt servicing leading to more pressure on our forex reserves. He said the rupee depreciation may provide some incentives to the export sector of the country, but due to rise in the cost of imports, production cost would further go up that would affect the competitiveness of our exports. He said Pakistan’s imports were much higher compared to its exports and rupee depreciation would thus bring more problems to the overall economy.
 

Sheikh Amir Waheed stressed upon the government and the State Bank of Pakistan to take urgent measures to arrest this dangerous trend of falling value of rupee. He cautioned that if rupee continued to fall further, it would bring many difficulties to the general public due to rising inflation and would also badly affect the trade and industrial activities due to cut in purchasing power of the consumers ultimately leading to further slump in the economic activities of the country.