Pakistan’s iron-clad grip on its dollar holdings may be keeping its currency stable, but it’s also hurting local and foreign businesses who are stuck closing and reopening factories as they face difficulty accessing the greenback.
The assembler of Suzuki vehicles in the country is shutting its motorcycle plant for 16 days through mid-August due to a lack of inventory. Sitara Peroxide Ltd., a chemical producer, last month closed its factory for four weeks, while the manufacturer of Toyota cars also shut its plant for two weeks.
Factories have been forced to shutter for weeks at a time since the South Asian nation slid into a crisis last year as a dearth of dollars bars them from importing raw materials. That’s weighing on industries from steel to automobiles as production comes to a standstill.
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