pakistna forex

Pakistan Forex

Introduction to Foreign Exchange Markets:



Being the main force driving the global economic market, currency is no doubt an essential element for a country. However, in order for all the countries with different currencies to trade with one another, a system of exchange rate between their currencies is needed; this system, is formally known as foreign exchange or currency exchange.

In the early days, the system of currency exchange is supported solely by the gold amount held in the vault of a country. However, this system is no longer appropriate now due to inflation and hence, the value of one’s currency nowadays is determined through the market forces alone. In order to determine the value of a currency’s exchange rate, two main types of system is used which is floating currency and pegged currency.

For floating exchange rate, its value is determined by the supply and demand of the global market where the supply and demand is bound by all these factors such as foreign investment, inflation and ratios of import and export. Normally, this system is adopted by most of the advance countries like for example UK, US and Canada. All of these countries have a similarity where their market is well developed and stable in economic terms. These countries choose to practice this system due to the reason where floating exchange rate is proven to be much more efficient compared to the pegged exchange rate. The reason behind this is because for floating exchange rate, the market itself will re-adjust the exchange rate real-time in order to portray the actual inflation and other economic forces. However, every system has its own flaw and so does the floating exchange rate system. For instance, if a country suffers from economic instability due to various reasons such as political issues, a floating exchange rate system will certainly discourage investment due to the high risk of suffering from inflationary disaster or sudden slump in exchange rate.

Another form of exchange rate is known as pegged exchange rate. This is a system where the value of the exchange rate is fixed by the government of a country and not the supply and demand of the market. This system is called pegged exchange rate because the value of a country’s currency is fixed to another country’s currency. As a result, the value of the pegged currency will not fluctuate unlike the floating currency. The working principle behind this system is slightly complicated where the government of a country will fixed the exchange rate of their currency and when there is a demand for a certain currency resulting a rise in the exchange rate, the government will have to release enough of that currency into the market in order to meet that demand. However, there is a fatal flaw in this system where if the pegged exchange rate is not controlled properly, panics may arise within the country and as a result of that, people will be rushing to exchange their money into a more stable currency. When that happens, the sudden overflow of that country’s currency into the market will decrease the value of their exchange rate and in the end, their currency will be worthless. Due to this reason, only those under-developed or developing countries will practice this method as a form to control the inflation rate.

However, the truth is, most of the countries do not fully practice the floating exchange rate or the pegged exchange rate method in reality. Instead, they use a hybrid system known as floating peg. Floating peg is the combination of the two main systems where one country will normally fixed their exchange rate to the US Dollars and after that, they will constantly review their peg rate in order to stay in line with the actual market value.

The Foreign exchange market, or commonly known as FOREX, is the largest and most prolific financial market because each day, more than 1 trillion worth of currency exchange takes place between investors, speculators and countries. From this, we can deduce that the actual mechanism behind the world of foreign exchange is far more complicated than what we may already know, and that, the information mentioned earlier is just the tip of an iceberg.






Significant Decline In Foreign Investment To Pakistan


Foreign direct investments in Pakistan declined by 54.6%, past seven months of the fiscal year with investments falling to only $1.18 billion, State Bank of Pakistan confirmed today.

According to State Bank Of Pakistan the FDI flow into the state during July to November period of this fiscal year fell by 54% but when combined with portfolio investment reported a decline was 25.6%.

State Bank in an email stated, “investments have fallen to $1.18 billion from $2.59 billion a year earlier. Global funds bought $290.7 million more Pakistani stocks than they sold in the seven months, compared with net sales of $355.8 million a year ago.”

In Geneva on 19 January 2009 , Global foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows were estimated to fall by 21% in 2008 to an estimated $1.4 trillion, and were estimated to further decline in 2009.

Political instability, terrorist attacks, power, gas and water shortage and weak law order control has led to falling trend in FDI. These are the major reasons due to which the foreign investors are not interested in investing their capital in Pakistan.

Pakistani firms are unable to sign agreement with foreign investors due to the prevailing abysmal law and order situation.

According to economists, “although the global economic meltdown was also a reason of slow growth in FDI, the domestic shocks were major contributors in the declining trend of FDI. November was the third consecutive month in which the country posted decline in foreign direct investment. We were expecting some increase in the FDI during the current fiscal year ahead of positive economic indicators. The ongoing war in the northern areas and suicide attacks in different cities had restricted the foreign buyers from new investment in Pakistan.”

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on has said, “FDI had posted a decline of 52.2 percent during July-November period of current fiscal year. Although, some increase was registered in portfolio investment in the first five months of current fiscal year, FDI still remained on decline.”

FDI reduced to $774 million during July-November of current fiscal year in last fiscal year it was $1.62 billion, depicting a decrease of 846.7 million dollars. Portfolio investment have reached to $311.3 million in July-November of fiscal year 2010. In 2009 it was 162.9 million dollars. The government expects gross domestic product will grow 3.3 percent this fiscal year.

Current global economic recession, and falling profits have caused many companies to cut capital expenditures and reduce FDI. This economic crisis has affected every region with varying geographical impacts. This crisis originated in developed countries and their major effects on the developing world have been indirect up till now which has affected FDI flow.

The share of foreign direct investment, flowing into Pakistan, is negligible when compared to the opportunities and economic fundamentals of the country. The FDI inflow into the country is less than one per cent of its total, made globally. Since 1996, when received highest amount, FDI in Pakistan has been experiencing a declining trend.

According to UNCTAD, “all experienced sharp foreign direct investment declines, except for the Netherlands and China. The overall environment for international investment is slowly improving. As a consequence, it expects global FDI flows will rebound modestly in 2010. The economists say improving conditions will ultimately encourage companies to invest more in foreign countries this year, prompting a stronger recovery in 2011.”

To emerge as a promising nation Pakistan has to provide conductive environment for external economic flows.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Pakistan is a major external source to meet obligations of resource gap, human resource development and goal achievement. The FDI has played a vital role in the economic growth of Pakistan.