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1971-01-31

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YAHYA CONCEDES ECONOMIC DEFEAT

By United Press International

Page: 5

Pakistani Says He Will Pass Problem to His Successors

RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Jan. 30 (UPI)—President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan, who admits that hit two‐year‐old military Government has failed to improve Pakistan's deteriorating economy, says he will pass the problem to his civilian successors.

“I inherited a bad economy and I am going to pass it on,” President Yahya recently told newsmen questioning him about economic problems.

He has been meeting with leaders of the two parties that won control of the National Assembly in last month's general elections, but he has had little encouraging information to give them. The President has promised to step down and yield to civilian rule when the new Assembly drafts a constitution that is acceptable to him.

World financial bodies have been pressing for a devaluation of the rupee from the cur rent 4.786 to the dollar in light of sharp drops in Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves.

Talks With I.M.F.



Negotiations were held with a team from the International Monetary Fund for standby credit arrangements after foreign exchange reserves dropped to $160‐million, the lowest level in a decade.

Government officials said the team was expected to state next month the terms under which it would grant the stand by credit.

A major change that the monetary fund is expected to demand is in the “bonus voucher scheme” that Pakistan uses in its exchange system, Under this scheme, the Government issues exporters certificates entitling them to use a certain percent age of export earnings to buy specified imports.

Limited quantities of the vouchers have pushed their prices up to double the official rupee rate. Critics of the scheme say that big businessmen have been able to reap huge profits in black market sales of the vouchers since they were introduced 12 years ago.