Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh has outshined Pakistan in many indicators in last 50 years of its independence, including maintaining a stronger currency than that of Pakistan.

A Bangladesh Taka (BDT) was equal to 2.13 Pakistani Rupees (PKR) on Monday, according to the international currency converter xe.com.

In terms of the exchange rate with the US dollar, Taka remains in a stronger position at 86.25 per USD against PKR exchange rate of 184.35 per USD. In the last 10 years, Bangladesh’s currency kept domination over the Pakistani rupees. Tk 1 was equal to 1.10 Pakistani rupees on April 6, 2012.

The exchange rate stood at 2.13 PKR per 1 taka on April 4, 2022, almost double the valuation of 2012. The exchange rate of BDT was 1.30 PKR on April 6, 2017, while the rate crossed 2.00 on October 12, 2021.

Former Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said the stable exchange rate of Bangladesh Taka owes to the growing RMG exports, remittances and vibrant agriculture while the inflation has also been better contained in Bangladesh than in Pakistan.

“Back in 1971, the size of the economy of Pakistan comprising today’s geographical area was 70 percent larger than that of Bangladesh. But now Bangladesh’s economy is nearly 50 percent larger than that of Pakistan. The per capita income of Bangladesh is now about $2,600, around $1100 more than that of Pakistan,” Dr Atiur Rahman told the Daily Sun.

The eminent economist also highlighted the changes in two economies in last five decades.

Dr Atiur said the gains in social development indicators including poverty rate, life expectancy, infant and maternal mortalities and women empowerment in Bangladesh have also been far better than in Pakistan over the last 50 years, particularly in the last one decade since 2009.

“Bangladesh should remain cautious about growing external debt, particularly from those sources that charge at higher rates, to fortify its macro-economic stability,” he added.

Policy Research Institute’s executive director Ahsan H Mansur thinks the valuation of Pakistani Rupees is not important for our economy as the currency is less discussed in the business circle due to its poor transaction volume in Bangladesh.

The valuation of a currency depends on the balance between aggregated export and import of a country. In the case of the third world economy, remittance is added with the export earnings.“Pakistani economy has lagged behind India and Bangladesh. And that reflects on their currency valuation. It was unimaginable once that a person spends two Pakistani rupees to avail a Bangladeshi taka,” Dr Mansur told the Daily Sun.

Bangladesh launched its own currency of taka on March 4, 1972. During that time, a Pakistani rupee was equal to 1.65 taka. The scenario has been changed over the years.

In the 1970s, Dr Mansur mentioned that a person had to spend Tk 3 currencies to buy a 1 Pakistani rupee immediately after Bangladesh’s independence.

He said from the 1980s, the Bangladeshi taka started to became stabilise against foreign currencies.

“Now the situation is changed with changing landscape of Bangladesh economy, propelled by exports, imports and remittance inflow,” Dr Manur added.