ISLAMABAD : The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) on Thursday expressed grave concern of dwindling rupee holding government responsible for the mess.  Government has been systematically damaging local currency to live up to the secret agreement reached with the IMF without considering its implications, it said.   The deal with the lender has made rupee one of the world’s worst-performing currencies; it has raised cost of external debt servicing, cost of domestic debt, cost of imports and opened floodgates of inflation, said Murtaza Mughal, President PEW.
He said that the demand for dollar is set to increase leading to dollarisation of the economy where people keep their savings in dollars as hedge against inflation while use local currency for daily expenditure only.
The continuous fall in rupee value has been multiplying the cost of doing business for those who rely on imported industrial raw materials and machinery, he said adding that government has been sacrificing national interests to fulfil preconditions of IMF.
He said that greenback value against the rupee was Rs59 in Dec 2001, it was Rs98 in Dec 2012 and now it is around Rs105 which proves failure of the successive governments.