KARACHI: The rupee made a slight gain of two paisas against the dollar on Wednesday amid high foreign currency demand for import payments.

The exchange rate ended at Rs176.41 to the dollar from the previous day’s closing of Rs176.43 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

The dealers said that the market had seen dollar demand due to the upsurge in the international oil prices. The benchmark Brent crude was trading at $89.27 per barrel at the time of filing this report.

The positive sentiments prevailed on the expected inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), they said, adding that the inflows of over $1 billion from the IMF would help the central bank to improve foreign exchange reserves and would also help the rupee to recover further.

The foreign exchange reserves of the country deteriorated sharply. Pakistan’s liquid foreign exchange reserves plunged by $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 rupee during the current fiscal year remained under pressure. The local currency fell by Rs18.87, or 11.98 per cent, against the dollar from Rs157.54 on June 30, 2021 to the present level of Rs176.41.