Pakistan economic crisis: Going through the economic crisis, the cash-strapped neighbour Pakistan is likely to face an acute shortage of fuel in February. According to reports, Pakistani banks are not releasing money to buy crude oil amid a worrying situation of foreign exchange reserves in the country.
Not just with foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan is also dealing with a depreciating value of its currency against the dollar which is rising the cost of imports, especially fuel, and food.
Pakistani rupee is currently hovering around Rs 270 against the dollar after its government surrendered control over the exchange rate to meet bailout demands of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"We're at the end of the road. The government has to make a political case to the public for meeting these (IMF) demands. If they don't, the country will certainly default, and we'll end up like Sri Lanka, which will be even worse," AFP reported former World Bank economist Abid Hasan as saying.
Last week, Pakistan witnessed a massive power outage when several big cities were left with no electricity for hours.
According to Reuters, there is no shortage of fuel in Pakistan this fortnight but it's likely to face a crisis if letters of credit are not issued.
Recently, the government of Pakistan announced new prices of petroleum products which have been effective from January 29 onwards.
According to revised rates, the cost of high speed Diesel is Rs 262.80 per litre, MS Petrol Rs 249.80 per litre, Kerosene Oil Rs 189.83 per litre and Light Diesel Oil Rs 187 per litre.
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