Rupee falls to 185.92 against dollar

KARACHI: The dollar for the third day in a row rose to Rs185.92 against the rupee on Wednesday, dealers said.

The exchange rate witnessed a decline of Rs1.48 to end at Rs185.92 against the greenback from the previous day’s closing of Rs184.44 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

The local unit lost Rs4.37 during the last three trading sessions.
The dealers attributed the recent slump in the rupee value to a significant demand for the dollars for external payments.

The rupee fell to an all-time low of Rs188.18 against the dollar on April 7, 2022.

The central bank in an emergency meeting on April 7, 2022, announced an unscheduled monetary policy and stunned the stakeholders with a sharp rise in the key policy rate by 250 basis points to 12.25 per cent from 9.75 per cent.

The rupee made a sharp recovery following the policy announcement and reached Rs181.55 level on April 16, 2022.

However, the measures taken by the central bank through the policy rate enhancement and other measures, including imposition of 100 per cent cash margin on imports failed, as the dollar rebounded massively during the last three trading sessions.

The currency dealers said the foreign exchange reserves of the country were depleting rapidly.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a 22-month low after falling for nine consecutive weeks to $17.03 billion.

According to the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the foreign exchange reserves of the country fell $449 million to $17.028 billion by the week ended April 8, 2022, compared with $17.477 billion a week ago.

The foreign exchange reserves were at $17.971 billion by the week ended June 26, 2020.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves declined $10.23 billion in the last seven months, owing to extreme demand pressure for the dollars for import payments and external repayments of government debt.