Daily Times

Downwards the rupee marches, crossing the Rs174 to the dollar barrier on Thursday, with much more downside expected. In all the doom and gloom surrounding the local currency with the current account deficit and the fast rise in international commodity prices, the one thing that could, and most likely would, have brought some relief was a successful conclusion of the IMF talks. Yet even that hangs in the balance and even though the stock market seems to have priced in an encouraging outcome, the money market is not so sure just yet. For it, the proof of the pudding is truly going to be in its eating.

How strange in such times to see the SBP governor, no less – the man tasked with controlling the money supply, which makes the currency rate his jurisdiction – trying to find some silver lining on this dark cloud; this historic capitulation of the rupee. Since he was speaking in Manchester, he probably though it was a smart idea to point out that while the rupee’s misfortunes brought similar misfortune to a lot of people back home, it can’t be said that it hasn’t turned out pretty well so far for expats sending back remittances.

Whether this statement was the result of desperation stemming from complete failure to control monetary policy or it was just a gracious gesture meant to cheer people up in dark times isn’t immediately clear. But suffice to say that it did betray a worrying detachment from the biting nature of this crisis, which is now beginning to put a lot of pressure on national reserves as well. Central bank governors and chairmen are supposed to weigh each word, whether public or private, very carefully because the currency market reacts in real time. Yet the custodian of our country’s monetary sector displays a rather cavalier attitude towards something so monumentally important.

Surely this calls for some introspection, at the very least; at the level of the central bank and also above it. *