أزمة العملة في باكستان: كيف فقد الروبية 98٪ من قيمتها خلال 77 عامًا

Pakistan’s rupee tells a brutal story of economic collapse. Here’s what 77 years of inflation and currency depreciation actually looks like:

The Stable Era (1947-1954)

1 USD = 3.31 PKR

Right after independence, the Pakistani rupee was solid. You could buy way more with a dollar back then.

The First Major Hit (1955-1960)

The rupee dropped to 4.76 PKR per dollar—a 44% devaluation in just one year. The damage was done and it stayed there for a decade.

The 1972 Shock

After the 1971 Bangladesh separation, the rupee collapsed from 4.76 to 11.01 PKR per dollar. That’s a 131% plunge. Then it bounced back to 9.99 and held relatively stable until the late 1980s.

The Real Bleeding Starts (1989-2000)

• 1989: 20.54 PKR
• 1999: 51.90 PKR
• In just 10 years, the rupee lost 60% of its value

This was the era of Pakistan’s IMF bailouts and structural adjustment programs.

The Freefall (2001-2024)

Then things got exponentially worse:

• 2001: 63.50 PKR (post-9/11 IMF intervention)
• 2008: 81.18 PKR (global financial crisis hit hard)
• 2013: 107.29 PKR (crossed 100 mark)
• 2019: 163.75 PKR (Imran Khan’s government struggled)
• 2022: 240.00 PKR (inflation surge, energy crisis)
• 2024: 277.00 PKR

The Math

In 1947, 1 USD = 3.31 PKR In 2024, 1 USD = 277.00 PKR

The rupee has lost 98.8% of its purchasing power in 77 years.

To put it differently: what cost 3.31 rupees in 1947 now costs 277 rupees. That’s an 83x increase in nominal prices.

What This Means

• Pakistani savers got absolutely wrecked. If you saved 1 million rupees in 1980, it’s worth roughly 35,000 rupees in today’s purchasing power
• Import-dependent economy got worse with each devaluation
• Real wages haven’t kept up—workers are earning more rupees but buying less
• Debt burdens exploded (Pakistan owes money in foreign currency, but earns in depreciating rupees)

Why Did This Happen?

Chronic fiscal deficits, current account crises, political instability, IMF bailouts (23+ times since 1988), and structural economic problems nobody fixed.

The rupee didn’t just depreciate—it got crushed by fundamentals.