Foreign currency reserves of a country play an important role in defining the lines of the economy of a specific country. A country having abundant foreign currency reserves supports its all the departments in a good way. But, when a country lacks the foreign currency reserves then the whole cycle of the country disturbs badly.
Pakistan is currently facing worst situation of economy. Foreign Currency reserves of Pakistan are continuously coming down. Last week country was having 5.8 billion dollars in foreign currency reserves. But, today the reserves have further come down. Now Pakistan is having only 5.6 billion dollars in the account. The reserves have come down to a drastic level. Country is standing at the verge of devastation. All the indicators of economy are showing that country will default soon. But, the government is still not accepting openly and is busy in giving the satisfying statements.
The options county having in its hand currently are only two including assistance from any friendly country or a package from International Monetary Fund (IMF). Efforts are being made to get assistance from Saudi Arabia and China. Besides this, steps are also being taken for engaging IMF. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday said an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation was slated to visit Pakistan in 2-3 days to “take up and finalise” the ninth review of the economy to unstick a direly needed bailout tranche of $1.1 billion. “I spoke to IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and emphasised that Pakistan wishes to complete the IMF bailout programme,” the premier said during an address at the inauguration ceremony of Hazara Electric Supply Company (HAZECO). “I urged her to soften the terms of the deal because the masses cannot be burdened anymore. We have slapped taxes on the rich segments of society,” the premier claimed. “I also pleaded with her to dispatch a delegation for the 9th review under the loan programme and she replied that IMF officials are scheduled to visit Pakistan in over a couple of days (2-3) days.”
Despite knowing the fact that country is standing at the verge of default, the political parties are continuously playing the tactics of blame game. In a recent move, the prime minister criticised the previous government for undermining Pakistan’s relations with friendly countries including China, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE because ex-prime minister Imran Khan utilised most of his energies for political victimisation and blaming the opponents. Calling Imran a thankless person, the prime minister said the PTI chief had nothing to claim the credit for any development project in KP, Sindh, AJK, GB, and Hazara. He said despite enjoying the immense support from the army, the PTI chief was ungrateful to the former military leadership General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa and was instead hurling blames at him.
Pakistan is supposed to pay back the debt of more than 08 billion Dollars in March. But, the current reserves are standing at 5.6 billion Dollars. The government is expecting a miracle from IMF. But, in case the IMF agrees with Pakistan even then the country will receive just 1 billion dollars which would not be able play any decisive role. Efforts should be utilized more towards seeking the help from friendly countries so that the economy of the country may not default.
Published in Daily Country News, January 7th, 2023.