Staff Reporter
Islamabad
The business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Monday urged the government to take urgent remedial measures to stabilize value of rupee as its continuous depreciation would have devastating impact on the business and economic activities.
Muhammad Ahmed Waheed, President ICCI said Pakistan was mostly importing machinery, capital goods and raw material for industrial production while some industries were importing up to 70 percent of raw material for manufacturing activities.
However, the constantly falling value of rupee would make the imports of these things very costly, that would further enhance the cost of production making our exports more uncompetitive in the international market besides increasing inflation for the common man.
He said this situation demanded the government to make urgent intervention to stabilize the local currency to save the economy from further troubles.
The ICCI President said business community needed a stable currency to make the end product cost effective. However, frequent fluctuations in the value of rupee against dollar was thwarting all efforts of local industry to manufacture competitive and cost effective end products in the country for local consumption and exports.
Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said falling value of rupee would also enhance the cost of debt servicing leading to more pressure on our forex reserves.
He said Pakistan’s imports were much higher as compared to its exports and rupee depreciation would thus bring more problems to the overall economy as it would further enhance the cost of doing business in the country.
He cautioned that if value of rupee continued to fall, it would badly affect the trade and industrial activities leading to bankruptcy of many Small and Medium Enterprises. He, therefore, called upon the State Bank of Pakistan and the government to make urgent intervention in the matter and take strong measures to stabilize value of currency to save the economy from its destructive impact.
