ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Pakistan office has stated that the Fund’s Staff Report for the 2006 Article Consultation recently placed on the its website only observes that there has been 10 per cent real appreciation of the Pakistani rupee since end-2004. It further said this was due to the somewhat higher inflation in Pakistan than in its trading partners.

Clarifying the Fund’s position with reference to the Dawn’s news report of Friday, the IMF statement said the impression created about 10 per cent devaluation was not correct. “In fact, as further explained in the Staff Report, the evidence of overvaluation is mixed, and depends on the methodologies use”.

The statement said: “accordingly, the IMF staff has only advised the Pakistani authorities to pursue policies consistent with avoiding further steady appreciation of the real exchange rate over the medium-term, in order to maintain competitiveness”.