The Pakistani rupee’s decline slowed on Friday after its value plunged over the previous two days, with hopes raised by an International Monetary Fund team visiting Islamabad next week to discuss unlocking a suspended bail-out package.

Left with only $3.68 billion in foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan barely has enough to cover three weeks of imports, and desperately needs the IMF to release the next $1 billion tranche of its bail-out programme to head off a potential default.