If you or your parents are pensioners and, let’s say, you had stowed away Rs5 million in banks to cover daily expenses you have lost over Rs480,000 in a day today (Thursday) after the US dollar value rose from Rs231 to Rs255.43.

Similarly, your salary’s buying power has been eroded by the same amount and you are likely to feel the pain by as early as next week.

“This is the largest single-day decline in both absolute and percentage terms, at least since 2000,” according to Ismail Iqbal Securities which issued a note.

We are not only providing you an idea of your potential losses — or gains for that matter — but have also created two calculators that allow you to assess how much money you lost in dollar terms or made in rupee terms on Thursday and to what extent your salary’s buying power has been eroded.

The increase in dollar value will unleash a new wave of inflation in the country and you may see cars, houses, and even food becoming expensive.

PTI’s Muzzammil Aslam says that petrol and dollar prices will increase sharply and petrol will cost Rs250 per litre because the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) will be calculating the average import prices on the basis of the changed dollar rate.

Pakistan imports both crude oil and refined petroleum products and Ogra computes prices based on the purchase price of these fuels in dollar terms before they are imported into Pakistan.

Savers bear the brunt

But savers and pensioners have been dealt the hardest blow from the rupee’s depreciation.

The Pakistani rupee has lost Rs24.54 or 9.61% of its value in a day, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

In dollar terms, this means that if your Rs5 million could have bought $21,645 on Wednesday, now they can buy you only $19,762 — a loss of $over 2,000.

US$2000 converted into Pakistani rupees at the rate of $1: Rs255.43 is Rs510,860.

But the State Bank of Pakistan’s calculation always focuses on Rupee depreciation and not on how much the US dollar has appreciated. Hence, it says that the Rupee depreciated by 9.61% on Thursday. This is the value that we have used in our calculator.

The dollar climb has eroded all of your savings by 9.61%. So, if you had saved Rs1 million, you have lost over Rs96,000.

The power of your salary to buy goods and food is going to fall by around 10%.

Asset values

On the other hand, the value of all your assets has increased by the same amount: 9.5%.

The rupee’s fall was not unexpected and many people tried to convert their savings into US dollars or precious metals such as gold. However, buying gold, especially in the form of bars, or the US dollar became almost impossible for a common Pakistani in the week before Thursday’s rupee crash.

Still, the value of your existing assets will increase by 9.61% or more in the next few weeks.

You can use a different version of our calculator to calculate your gains.

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