ISLAMABAD
\nThe Pakistan Industrial & Traders Association Front (PIAF) Chairman Faheem Ur Rehman Saigol has said the trade and industry had to be kept solvent and protected from default for which prudent measures would have to be taken, such as slashing of imports along with strict monitoring of the central bank of forex companies to help stabilize the rupee, as the country\u2019s total liquid foreign exchange reserves declined by $206 million during last week due to external debt servicing.
\nPIAF Chairman Faheem Ur Rehman Saigol pointed out that the strategy of curbing imports was not growth-friendly, as the PIAF does not believe in the import substitution model and is in favour of export expansion. This is where we should plan to focus our efforts to take this forward for sustained economic growth. He said that our tax to GDP percentage is very low at 9.2 percent. We have to do better in order to achieve economic stability but we will undertake reforms in a gradual and orderly fashion in this regard.
\nReferring to the weekly forex report, he said that total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at$14.209 billion as on Jul 29, 2022 compared to $14.145 billion on July 22, 2022. During the week under review, the SBP\u2019s reserves decreased by $ 190 million to $ 8.385 billion due to external debt and other payments. Net foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks stood at $ 5.823 billion, down by $16 million in a week.
\nHe said that it\u2019s a positive indication that the rupee has started to appreciate against greenback majorly due to less import and partially owing to the SBP\u2019s strict monitoring of the foreign exchange operations, suspending the operations of several branches of some exchange companies for violation of SBP regulations.
\nHe expected that with controlled import bill and lower trade deficit, the rupee is expected to gradually strengthen. He said that the rupee depreciation has been overdone and driven by only sentiments. The rupee has overshot due to concerns about domestic politics and the IMF program. The local currency had fallen by 23 percent in 2022 and 8 percent during the last two weeks on fears of delay in the IMF program, falling FX reserves and increased political noise. However, now it has started the recovery and is likely to gain further in the coming days, he hoped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD The Pakistan Industrial & Traders Association Front (PIAF) Chairman Faheem Ur Rehman Saigol has said the trade and industry had to be kept solvent and protected from default for which prudent measures would have to be taken, such as slashing of imports along with strict monitoring of the central bank of forex companies to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264422,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-276320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n