Main reason behind rupee devaluation is Speculations : Asad Umar

Minister for Finance Asad Umar on Friday said that speculations in the local money market had sparked the dollar value against rupee which was further ignited by the fake news being spread in the social media.
Talking to media persons here, the minister said there would be no further devaluation in rupee value as the State Bank of Pakistan had categorically made it clear that the supply and demand of dollar against rupee had reached to its equilibrium level.

The minister said that there was no condition by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the exchange rate or to devalue the rupee.

A currency should be aligned with the fundamentals, he said adding, the real effective exchange rate in January, 2018 was Rs 127 against US dollar, which was 27 percent overvalued at that time. He stressed the need for stopping these speculations for stabilization of local currency.

The minister said the statements of former finance minister who was a declared absconder and was responsible for destroying the national economy and putting it on the verge of collapse has also created speculations about dollar value.

He warned that all such speculators to stop spreading such rumors otherwise the government had the option of taking them to the court and deal with them according to the law.

Umar said the government of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf inherited a fragile economy with deepening fiscal deficit, increasing current account deficit, and declining foreign direct investment, adding that it also inherited US $19 billion current account deficit.

Whereas he said that in last regime, by July 25, 2018, the value of rupee against dollar reached to Rs 127 from Rs 105 in December 2017 witnessing a devaluation of Rs 22.

The minister admitted that there was a rise in inflation but it was still at the lower level when compared with the first eight months governments of Pakistan Peoples Party, and Pakistan Muslim League (N)

Courtesy : APP