LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to intervene for stabilising the rupee, a statement said.

LCCI president Mian Tariq Misbah said that the free-fall of the rupee poses serious challenges to the economy, adding that the depreciation in the local currency would increase the cost of doing business, inflation, debts and harm exports.

The surge in the dollar rates would increase the import bill, he said, adding that the recent surge in the dollar rates would not only jack-up the cost of doing business but would also erode the profit margins.

Misbah urged the SBP to ascertain the factors weakening the value of the rupee and check the possibilities of undue speculations and malpractice in the operation of foreign exchange markets.

“This will help stabilise [the] rupee and restore the confidence of the business community,” he said, adding that the situation was really alarming, as Pakistan was importing fertilisers, food items, oil, machinery and industrial raw materials.

LCCI senior vice president Muhammad Nasir Hameed Khan and vice president Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry said that the government should take immediate measures to arrest further devaluation of the rupee to avoid more damaging consequences for the economy.

Though the weaker rupee benefit exporters by giving them more rupees in exchange of dollars but this benefit would be neutralised by the costly imported inputs of the manufacturing sector, they said, adding that the economy was already under pressure, owing to multiple internal and external challenges due to the Covid-19.

They suggested the government to immediately introduce institutional reforms and curtail non-development expenditures for the sake of the country’s economy and its people.

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