KARACHI: Afghanistan’s emerging situation and burgeoning import bills are keeping Pakistan’s currency under pressure which has depreciated by more than 10 percent in the last four months, said traders and analysts on Friday.
The Pak rupee did make some progress in the last two days and closed at Rs166.91 on Friday. Official data reveal the currency was hovering around the same level last year on July 29 when the country was witnessing the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The situation in Afghanistan is keeping the national currency under tremendous pressure,” said Khurram Schehzad of Alpha Beta Core, a financial advisory platform. “Greenback is in a massive demand in Afghanistan since the withdrawal of the international forces.”
Local currency dealers agree with the assessment, saying about $2 million have been flowing out of the country to Afghanistan on a daily basis since the fall of Kabul.
“Afghans with dual nationality have been buying 1.5 to 2 million dollars on a daily basis from open market and taking it to their country since the American currency is now in a short supply over there,” Malik Bostan, Chairman Forex Association of Pakistan, told Arab News. “The inflow of dollars has stopped in the neighboring country, and Afghanistan's entire banking system has collapsed.”
“Previously, Pakistan received $5 million to $7 million from Afghanistan every day since currency was cheap over there and salary payments were mostly made in dollars,” he added.
Apart from the situation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani rupee is also weakening against greenback due to the country’s growing trade deficit.
Pakistan has recorded the highest trade deficit in August when its import bill stood at $6.3 billion and its export revenue was $2.25 billion, causing a trade deficit of $4.06 billion. Previously, the country had recorded its highest deficit of $3.77 billion in June 2018.
“The situation indicates that dollar is in a short supply to meet the demand of importers which is exerts a significant pressure on the national currency,” Samiullah Tariq, director research at the Pakistan-Kuwait Investment, told Arab News.
“In July, the current account deficit was $773 million, but it seems that it is going to be higher for August, though the remittance figures have yet not been released,” he added.
The State Bank of Pakistan reported on Thursday the country had $27.22 billion in foreign reserves. The country’s forex position was also strengthened since it received $2.75 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last week. However, this build-up has also failed to cool the currency market where the Pakistani rupee remains under pressure.
“The policy of the government or the central bank seems to be that it is not going to use its forex reserves to defend the rupee,” Tariq commented.
US withdrawal from Afghanistan, high import bill weaken Pakistan’s currency — traders
https://arab.news/c6y5n
US withdrawal from Afghanistan, high import bill weaken Pakistan’s currency — traders
- Local currency dealers say nearly $2 million have been flowing to Afghanistan from Pakistan on a daily basis since the international military pullout
- The Pakistani currency has lost nearly 10 percent of its value against the US dollar in the last four months
Pakistan partners with Swiss firm to provide free cancer treatment to patients
- In Pakistan, more than 185,000 new cancer cases and over 125,000 deaths are reported annually
- Under the agreement, Roche Pakistan will bear 70% cost of cancer medicines, government will pay 30%
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has partnered with a leading Swiss pharmaceutical firm, Roche, to provide costly cancer treatment to Pakistani patients free of cost, the country’s health minister said on Friday, as the two sides signed an agreement in this regard.
Cancer is an insidious disease, alarmingly shaping the global health crisis as it claims millions of lives each year. Responsible for one in six deaths worldwide, cancer cases are projected to reach 26 million annually by 2030, with developing countries shouldering 75% of this burden.
Over 70% of cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where survival rates hover at just 30%. The reasons are manifold, including inadequate access to early detection and treatment services, lack of awareness, and societal taboos, to name a few.
In Pakistan alone, more than 185,000 new cases and more than 125,000 deaths are reported annually. Breast cancer is the most common, accounting for 16.5% of cases, followed by lip and oral cavity cancers (8.6%) and lung cancer (5.1%), according to Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH).
“Roche Pakistan has proposed to the government many years ago that the cure for this cancer is only with them... and they want to do a partnership with the Government of Pakistan. They want to give 70% of the price of the medicine,”
Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said, adding the government would bear the rest of the 30% cost of treatment.
“And whoever is given this medicine should be given it free of cost.”
Kamal shared that cancer treatment in Pakistan costs around Rs9.8 million ($34,588) in five years on an average.
“[Most] people don’t have this (amount). So, this was a very important project,” he said.
Citing a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the health minister said millions of Pakistanis, who were not born poor, had fallen below the poverty line after falling sick.
“Houses were sold, plots were sold, jewelry was sold, everything was sold and illness made them poor,” he said, praising Roche Pakistan for its support.
Speaking at the agreement-signing ceremony, Roche Pakistan Managing Director Hafsa Shamsie called it “just the first step.”
“We will enhance the number of patients, we will enhance the disease areas, and God willing, we will go into other parts of the patient journey, like awareness and diagnosis,” she said.
Pakistan last year vaccinated over 10 million adolescent girls against a virus that causes cervical cancer as part of a continuing national campaign that has overcome early setbacks fueled by skeptics online.
Cervical cancer is the third most common cancer among Pakistani women after breast and ovarian cancers. Globally, it is the fourth most common. Each year, between 18,000 and 20,000 women in Pakistan die of the disease, according to health authorities.
The girls targeted in the initial campaign were in Punjab and Sindh provinces and in Azad Kashmir. The country plans to expand the coverage to additional areas by 2027, hoping to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2030. It became the 149th country to add the HPV vaccine to its immunization schedule.
