KARACHI: Sovereign bonds slumped on Friday after Pakistan’s bailout talks with the IMF ended without an agreement.

The country’s bond due for repayment the soonest, in April 2024, tumbled 4.6 cents on the dollar or roughly nine per cent.

Other bonds with longer repayment dates fell between two and three cents to leave them at less than half their face value.

The country is in the middle of a dollar shortage, which is causing a depreciation in the rupee’s value against the greenback.

The country’s inability to finance its imports has resulted in a scarcity of industrial raw materials and production halts.

Sentiments in the capital markets have dropped amid a growing foreign exchange crisis as the country desperately attempts to revive the long-delayed $7bn IMF loan programme.

Separately, in a separate statement on Friday, Moody’s Investors Service said revenue-raising measures will likely be among prior actions that the IMF requires before releasing the next tranche of financing to Pakistan.

“Pakistan’s government liquidity and external vulnerability risks are elevated, and there remain considerable risks around Pakistan’s ability to secure required financing to fully meet its needs for the next few years,” Moody’s said.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2023