Pakistan Rupee
Currency

Overview

Pakistan is one among the developing nations showing positive growth since 1951. It was poor when it acquired independence and agriculture was the primary occupation.

The economy is classified as low income economy, but is constantly showing growth rate improvements. This country has come over challenges in financial and political contexts several times. The Pakistan rupee value since inception is declining. The official currency of Pakistan is the Pakistan rupee used from 1948.

The Indian numbering system is used by the currency for larger values and the currency code is PKR and 586 as the numeric code as per ISO standards.

Hajj banknotes

The pilgrims to the Saudi Arabia kingdom are large in numbers and the State Bank of Pakistan offers simple facilities for Hajj pilgrims to exchange. The special notes are issued as ‘Hajj notes’ and this was made in May 1950. These notes continued till 1994 and the notes are used until this date bearing signatures of later governors.

However, it is also believed that the Hajj Notes that remained in the stock after discontinuation were destroyed. However, many notes reached the collector market and their sale to a dealer dealing with bank notes.

Exchange rate

The Pakistan rupee was pegged in 1982 to the US Dollar, when the government changed it to float. Owing to this, the rupee was devalued by 38.5% during the years 1982/83 and 1987/88. This resulted in the increase in the cost of importing raw material and caused severe pressure on Pakistan finances such that the economic achievement under the guidance of ZA Bhutto showed a reversal.

The Pakistani rupee came down against the US dollar in that century and then Pakistan's current-account surplus hauled the rupee value up versus the dollar.

The central bank of Pakistan slowly stabilized by reducing the interest rates and started buying dollars in the aim of preserving the country's export competitiveness. Rupee lost 23% value since December, 2007 and showed a low record of 79.2 against US Dollar. The depreciation was due to the ongoing political crisis, trade account deficits, increased current trade accounts and elevating militancy in the FATA and NWFP areas.