Rupee recovers five paisas against dollar

KARACHI: The rupee recovered five paisas against the dollar on Monday on the expectations of release of the next International Monetary Fund (IMF) tranche, dealers said.

The exchange rate ended at Rs176.72 against the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs176.77 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

The Executive Board of the IMF is scheduled to meet on February 2, 2022. The meeting may approve the next tranche of over $1 billion after the country met the conditions, including approval of the State Bank Amendment Bill and the Finance Supplementary Act 2022 from the legislators.

The dealers said the fall in the foreign exchange reserves adversely dented the rupee stability earlier in the day. Pakistan’s liquid foreign exchange reserves plunged $866 million to $22.482 billion by the week ended January 21, 2022 as against $23.35 billion by the week ended January 14, 2022.

The dealers said the gradual increase in international oil prices may also bring the rupee value under pressure. The benchmark Brent oil was trading at $90.69.

During the day, a rumour that Pakistan is seeking $5 billion from China, Russia and Kazakhstan also supported the rupee. However, this was rejected by the Finance Division later in the day that no such idea was under consideration.