Pakistan’s economy faced tough challenges during 2019
Karachi … News Time
Pakistan’s economy faced tough challenges during 2019; a historic decline in the value of the rupee along with the high historical deficit happened this year. Despite a steady rise in interest rates, inflation did not decline. The government’s economic team has been able to restrict imports, but exports have not grown substantially. Government has to consult IMF to stabilize rapidly declining reserves on the other hand, the black clouds of the FATF sanctions have also been shrinking the economy to prevent funding for terrorists.
Due to limited investment, the government had to increase its dependence on loans to create economic balance and the economy was deeply entrenched in the swamp of debt. About $ 44 billion in loan agreements were signed, including $ 6 billion from the IMF, $ 6 billion 20 million from the United Arab Emirates, China provided $ 2 billion 20 million, the World Bank provided $ 2 billion 47 million while the Asian Development Bank signed a $ 11.5 billion loan, France also agreed to provide more than $ 11 billion worth of loans to help Pakistan, while Qatar also provided $ 3 billion.
Under the agreement with the IMF, Pakistan dropped the value of the rupee on market forces, resulting in the rupee’s price rising to Rs 164 against the dollar in June 2019. Last year, which was at Rs 139, the value of the rupee fell to the level of Rs 154 at the end of the year due to foreign debt and support from foreign exchange reserves foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 3 billion 83 million during 2019, while government reserves increased by $ 3 billion 70 million to reach $ 10 billion 90 million. During the year 2019, the public suffered unprecedented inflation. In November 2019, the inflation rate doubled in 2008 and inflation rose to 12.28 percent in November, the highest level of inflation in four and a half years.
