Islamabad, December 11:

Pakistan is not devaluing its rupee despite a reported recommendation of a 10 per cent depreciation by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“We are not in the business of devaluing or artificially backing the currency, but there continues to be speculation or improper interpretation and pressure on the government to manipulate and manoeuvre the exchange rates,” State Bank of Pakistan’s governor Shamshad Akhter said.

“The central bank is vigilant, and we will not allow speculators to attack exchange rates,” she said. “They will be dealt with in an appropriate manner. The reality is that Pakistan’s exchange rate regime is determined in the inter-bank market and trends are influenced by supply and demand pressures for foreign exchange at a point in time and by macroeconomic fundamentals at large,” Akhter said.

Pakistan’s first woman governor of the central bank, Akhter contended that Pakistan was ‘no longer in any IMF programme,’ and that, in any case, the IMF had not recommended any depreciation. “The IMF has not advocated, in its consultations with Pakistan, any depreciation and rather has provided its perspective and analysis of the movements in the real effective exchange rate,” she said.