Pakistan
Pakistan facing severe liquidity crunch
Pakistan, a nation which is facing severe flooding in recent weeks, is reeling under a dollar liquidity crunch, media reports said.
Pakistan has not yet made any fresh request to the IMF for the provision of a Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) or Natural Calamity Response-related funding facility on the expectations of a lukewarm response from the Washington-based international lender, reports The News International.
The IMF programme under $6.5 billion was restored in late August after it was stalled in February 2022 under PTI-led regime when it provided unfunded fuel and electricity subsidies.
Now in the wake of severe floods, the initially estimated losses have accumulated in the range of $18 billion, Pakistan’s agriculture sector faces the worst blow as the agriculture growth might remain zero or slide into negative against the envisaged target of 3.9 per cent for the current financial year 2022-23.
"The situation has aggravated as demand for imports has gone up manifold but the country does not have enough dollars. So in totality the exchange rate has gone under immense pressure in recent days whereby the rupee nosedived 9 per cent against the US dollar,” top official sources said while talking to The News here on Friday.
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