Is Pakistani rupee only currency weakening against US dollar?

KARACHI: Pakistani rupee is once again hovering around the all-time low records set during the last spell of depreciation. The local currency has been swinging in both directions since the start of the calendar year 2022.

Over the last few months, the rupee’s downward slide steepened, as it shattered all previous records owing to a host of reasons.

The crash is even more pronounced because the government had been assuring the market that the staff-level agreement reached with International Monetary Fund (IMF) will keep the country afloat for the rest of the fiscal year; however, the currency movement did not reflect the expectations of the government.

Read more: Pakistan in severe liquidity crunch despite revival of IMF programme

The IMF programme under $6.5 billion was restored in late August after it was stalled in February 2022 under the previous PTI-led regime when it provided unfunded fuel and electricity subsidies.

Pakistan's currency has been under pressure since then; while economists expected the rupee-dollar parity to improve after the revival of the IMF programme the recent catastrophic floods dented the economy.

Countries like Pakistan cannot imagine an economy without dollars, but the situation is heading fast in this direction and policymakers either look helpless despite securing financing from friendly countries.

Read more: Political instability, floods drive rupee's persistent slide against dollar

However, the alarming situation of weakening currency is not the issue being faced by Pakistan alone. There are a host of other countries — dubbed emerging markets — that are facing a similar currency weakness, which is making their economies unstable and investors pensive.

Topline Securities compiled data of some regional countries; lets a look at some of the top regional countries and how much value has their currencies lost since 2022 to date: