PKR-$ parity - from volatility to stability.

The year 2019 has been a bumpy one for Pakistan, with the country entering another International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme and making some extremely tough decisions in a bid to boost the economy.

As part of negotiations for the 22nd IMF bailout package, the global lender demanded that Pakistan adopt a free-float exchange rate regime. Hence, after decades of being strictly controlled by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the government consented to put in place a market-based flexible exchange rate system.

Under the new regime, which came into effect in May 2019 onwards, market forces...