Currency downturn

The yaun’s devaluation had a ripple effect on all South Asian currencies and we saw the Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan currencies come crashing down with the open market mechanism of demand and supply. Our currency, however, is comparatively steady because the government has been cropping it up. It has now gone down by a small percentage, ie, Rs104 to a dollar. But this is not enough because our main competitors in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc, are exporting goods at much cheaper rate than us because of their devalued currencies.
The advantage we have due to the drop in our import bill because of low oil prices in international markets will wash away because of our uncompetitive exports, especially textiles which comprises about 60 percent of our exports. It is time our policymakers woke up and allowed the rupee to have a soft landing in line with our South Asian competitors. If this is not allowed it is feared that we will face a very severe economic downturn. We should also take measures to counteract the resulting inflation as a result of devaluation.
Zaheer Ahmed
Islamabad