ISLAMABAD – US Dollar surges to Rs 144 against Pakistani Rupee on Friday onconcerns of delay in IMF bailout package.

The State Bank currently has $8 billion in dollar reserves. Since theinjection of dollars by Saudi Arabia, there have been no additionalpackages received by Pakistan. The move comes after the delay in the IMFpackage negotiations.

The expected package was delayed and Finance Minister Asad Umar saidPakistan isn’t in a rush and has two months to finalise the deal.

The news caused panic in the market. The reason why the dollar is going upso rapidly is that the SBP used to sell dollars in the market to increaseits supply and bring the rate down when demand was high and isn’t doing soanymore because it doesn’t have enough dollars.

Since the new government has come in power, the dollar has gone up byRs14.5 in interbank market and Rs19.5 in open market.