The Pakistani rupee continued to tumble in the first trading session after the budget 2022-23, breaking through the 204-mark by losing 1.65 paisas in the interbank market within intraday trade on Monday.
The Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) was also battered, with the benchmark KSE-100 index plummeting almost 1,000 points in intraday trade, going below the 41,000 mark.
“Today, sentiment is negative across all capital markets,” said financial market analyst Saad Ali, painting a grim picture of the economy.
He described the government budget for the coming fiscal year as a “major milestone” in the stalled $6 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) program’s resurrection.
Ali, on the other hand, stated that the market feels the government budget is “insufficient,” and that the Fund might not accept it.
“In line with the statement of Finance Minister Miftah Ismail over the weekend the market players expect that the government might have to revisit its proposed allocations and targets set in the federal budget in order to convince the IMF,” he added.
Ali went on to say that the government budget has compromised the much-anticipated IMF program’s reactivation.
He insisted that more clarification is required since, for the time being, the public perception is that the government must do more.
It’s worth noting that the Pakistani Rupee fell to an all-time low of Rs. 202.83 on June 7, exceeding its previous low of Rs. 202 set on May 26.
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