The Pakistani rupee’s 14 per cent precipitous fall since last Thursday has raised fears that Pakistan may be the next emerging market to default. The currency hit this all-time low after authorities abandoned controls on its exchange rate, in an attempt to secure the conditions for an IMF bailout. A mission from the IMF is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

Earlier this month, a nationwide power outage in Pakistan left nearly 220mn people without electricity. Successive days without regular electricity threatened to cause havoc in a country on the brink of default, with inflation at a high of 25 per cent.

While some have made the questionable claim that the reasons for the power breakdown may have been technical, Pakistan could soon run out of the fuel that powers its electricity plants. The state raised gasoline prices by about 16 per cent on Sunday. The country has been struggling to pay for oil imports and to meet energy demand, as its foreign exchange reserves have dwindled to just $3.7bn, equivalent to barely three weeks of imports.