Last year in August, I wrote about “IMF Deals Sans Political Stability.” After a year of painful struggle, we have finally secured a Standby program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but political chaos continues to loom large. In our longstanding relationship with the IMF dating back to the 1950s, we have engaged in 12 standby agreements (SBA) and 10 extended fund facilities (EFF) programmes. Therefore, the IMF has now become more prescriptive, introducing a band of a maximum ±1.25% average between the interbank and open market rates during any consecutive 5-business day period. It will be interesting to observe whether remittances are restored post-market-based exchange rate mechanism or if there is a more insidious factor contributing to the continuous fall. The writer is a financial market enthusiast and is attached to Pakistan’s stocks, commodities and emerging technologyPublished in The Express Tribune, July 31st, 2023.
