Pakistan GDP cross $250 billion dollar mark

[Hyde]

If he was in the business I'm pretty sure these guys keep track of all sorts of rates, official/black market

I don't understand the point of comparing exchange rate and private/black rate in this thread... and I don't trade Pakistani rupee, I have never done that

 

[Donatello]

actually Pakistan is the only country in the world (or I know the only country) who offers actual rate very similar to exchange rate of the international market. That is to attract more foreign investors and encourage overseas Pakistanis to send as much money to Pakistan as possible.

I know it was not like that before and like any country in the world, there was significant difference between bank rate and private transaction but now the difference has been narrowed marginally that you get the rate very similar to exchange rate

I am not saying it was high, it is just ripoff. I hate being ripoff. The problem was, it wasn't a big amount, just about 3500GBP and the lazy man i am, i kept it till the last minute...so i went to the forex dealer and he probably knew i needed money quick and didn't have any other option so he ripped me off. I mean 174 is way off 169PKR...........he very conveniently said......if you want it this is the rate, otherwise go someplace else.

But generally, street forex dealers are expensive anywhere in the world.....try using those on Oxford street in London.....lol.


Do you know where to get easy forex rates from banks in Karachi? And can you confirm if you need an account in that currency to make a withdrawal?

 

[Hyde]

I am not saying it was high, it is just ripoff. I hate being ripoff. The problem was, it wasn't a big amount, just about 3500GBP and the lazy man i am, i kept it till the last minute...so i went to the forex dealer and he probably knew i needed money quick and didn't have any other option so he ripped me off. I mean 174 is way off 169PKR...........he very conveniently said......if you want it this is the rate, otherwise go someplace else.

But generally, street forex dealers are expensive anywhere in the world.....try using those on Oxford street in London.....lol.


Do you know where to get easy forex rates from banks in Karachi? And can you confirm if you need an account in that currency to make a withdrawal?

well you should have changed currency from Pakistan as they offer higher rates... You can't blame the Pakistani government for whatever an individual shop owner/trader do to you somewhere on the streets of London.

Well I don't know about Karachi but most of the banks espacially Allied Bank and MCB offers good rate for British pound but for that you might need a bank account. I have MCB bank account and when I needed money, I used to withdraw from pounds account into rupees and the rate they used to give was almost same as private/black market rate so I was escaped from all the headache of finding a good dealer

 

[Faiez]

Change in Base year.in 2013 it was approved but not taken into consideration.

As per a most latest source's,it will be done in the FY 2015-16 as per dar sahab

With change in base year,Nigeria is now the biggest GDP of africa,Bangladesh economy also was increased by a huge %age when they changed the base year

BBC News - Nigeria becomes Africa's biggest economy

Nigeria GDP got a increase of 60% with base year,But i am expecting only max 35% and minimum 25% increse for Pakistani GDP

But pakistan is already using 2005-2006 for base year, it's much more upto date than nigeria. and what base year will they be using now?

 

[Donatello]

well you should have changed currency from Pakistan as they offer higher rates... You can't blame the Pakistani government for whatever an individual shop owner/trader do to you somewhere on the streets of London.

Well I don't know about Karachi but most of the banks espacially Allied Bank and MCB offers good rate for British pound but for that you might need a bank account. I have MCB bank account and when I needed money, I used to withdraw from pounds account into rupees and the rate they used to give was almost same as private/black market rate so I was escaped from all the headache of finding a good dealer

Oh just to clear, i did buy the GBP from Karachi, not London. I was merely saying that street forex traders are expensive anywhere...including those at the airport.

 

[Faiez]

Sir I don't know any country which does not intervene at times. But so far the government did not directly intervene into Forex exchange unlike other countries such as Japan, Korea and China. All it tried to do is control black market and encouraged people to reinvest in rupee rather than stocking USD and created a perception that people will make big losses if they did not sell their USD's so the inflow of USD was higher than average. On top of that there must be real reason for rupee to lose it's value... due to dropping oil prices, our oil expense is reduced, we received money from IMF, we privatised assets so more money coming in foreign reserves, we eliminated the PKR weak currency fear from people's mind and even the gap between import and exports are slightly reduced. So there were really not many reasons for PKR to fall further for this year.

I used to say that PKR is a currency which historically loses 10% of it's value each year and that is evident since 1950s... but in year 2014 there was a gap and besides your rants about the government, I see it is not backed by concrete evidence since the government got some sigh of relief through various reasons and I have mentioned few of them in the first paragraph

oil prices hadn't dropped when ruppee dropped from ~108 to ~100. Nothing has been privatized (nothing significant atleast). The loan came only just now, some time back. All that happened was elections and people's hopes and speculations. Also, SBP DID actually intervene. Not much has actually changed. Then the government gets the loan, increasing reserves, that kept the rate low as most traders trade on foreign reserve conditions. The 1:100 exchange rate is not sustainable. It will have to fall.

I've found an old news piece about SBP intervention here:

SBP moves to salvage rupee - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

 

[Green Arrow]

It is positive development as far as the economy is concerned. At present, We need Political stability and better security environment to keep moving our economy.

 

[Faiez]

Yea but the exchange rate quoted here is rarely the actual traded rate.....for example Banks will charge a higher conversion rate on your credit card transactions abroad...and if you went to a forex dealer they'll give higher rates for USD/GBP etc.

I remember i had to buy some GBP in a hurry as i was travelling.....the actual rate was 169....but the dealer refused to offer that...instead i bought at 174 Rs to 1 GBP.

the rate that is usually discussed is the rate at which banks trade. the retailer has a wider spread to make some profits but is still heavily regulated by the government.

 

[farhan_9909]

But pakistan is already using 2005-2006 for base year, it's much more upto date than nigeria. and what base year will they be using now?

False,Pakistan is using 2000 as base year.

I know many news claim that Pakistan is shifted to 2005-06 but it is not true as the change in base year was delayed to 20115-16 instead of the planned 2013

The base year was changed by Musharaf in 2005-06 but it doesn't mean the economy is calculated considering 2005-06 but 2000.

Even when we change the base year in 2015-16,The calculation will be most likely base off 2010-11 instead of 2015-16

http://www.app.com.pk/en_/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254374&Itemid=1

 

[Hyde]

oil prices hadn't dropped when ruppee dropped from ~108 to ~100. Nothing has been privatized (nothing significant atleast). The loan came only just now, some time back. All that happened was elections and people's hopes and speculations. Also, SBP DID actually intervene. Not much has actually changed. Then the government gets the loan, increasing reserves, that kept the rate low as most traders trade on foreign reserve conditions. The 1:100 exchange rate is not sustainable. It will have to fall.

I've found an old news piece about SBP intervention here:

SBP moves to salvage rupee - Newspaper - DAWN.COM

The nature of the intervention of SBP and Japanese was very different

One of the key elements for rupee stabilisation was the perception of the people and the fear factor aided by the government that people might incur heavy losses if they did not let go off dollar from the secret deposits. The inflow of USD and Euro made things easier for the government as previously these currencies used to be stocked like commodities in order to create artificial shortage of the currency and hence devaluing the PKR below threshold.

Basically the Government had less headache as compared to previous government and it is not a sin to say that the performance of the government was also slightly better than the last government so far. So they handled the matter bit more professional as compared to predecessors.

Having said that, I am hopeful we will be able to keep rupee around 100 for a longer period of time as the stability in local currency often means reliability for foreign investors and stability in the economy for longer run. Many foreign investors do not just invest for a simple fact that when they will invest in rupees and earn 20% after the closure of financial year, may be rupee lost it's value of 20% and that means their 20% profit will become zero if converted back to foreign investors local currency. So good news is coming from Pakistan and we must be happy that at least something is happening, if not anything

 

[ravi kiran]

Congratulations Pakistan for this achievement.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Congratulation, and best wish for Pakistan.

 

[volcano]

Good news for Pakistan

 

[The_Showstopper]

Congrats guys....

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

the real challenge is quantifying the informal sector and finding ways to formalize the informal sector (way easier said than done)

informal economy of Pakistan in 2008 was worth just over 70% of the formal economy.....these are conservative estimates. You do the math.