Rupee falls for second consecutive session

KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee continued to remain under pressure against the dollar on Monday, as the investors wait for gauging the market direction over the new rules, besides narrowing the foreign exchange reserves, dealers said.
The exchange rate shed 5 paisas against the dollar to reach Rs221.69 from Friday’s closing of Rs221.64 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency experts said that the second consecutive decline in the value of the rupee came owing to uncertainty over the regulators’ new rules, besides deteriorating macroeconomics of the country.

The foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) declined $956 million to reach $7.95 billion during the week ended on November 4, compared with $8.91 billion on October 28.

The central bank attributed the decrease in the reserves to external debt servicing. “Major external debt repayments executed during the week include repayment of government commercial loans,” the SBP said.

The overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $13.72 billion. The net reserves held by banks amounted to $5.76 billion.
The SBP implemented measures to reduce market volatility, lowering the cash-carrying limits for passengers and lowering the annual dollar limitation for debit and credit card transactions.

Additionally, a month-on-month decrease in workers’ remittances, a key source of dollar inflow for Pakistan, has also added to the pressure on the current account.
The workers remittances have also declined 15.7 per cent to reach $2.21 billion in October, compared with $2.62 billion in the same month of the last year.
On a monthly basis, the remittances witnessed a decline of 9 per cent, compared with $2.43 billion received during September.

The country’s services trade deficit slashed by over 26 per cent to 647.4 million during the first quarter of the fiscal year 2023, as against $877.3 million recorded in the same period last fiscal.

The services exports increased 4.63 per cent to $1.695 billion, and imports were down 6.2 per cent to $2.34 billion, depicting a deficit of $647.4 million.
The local currency remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The rupee lost Rs16.84 or 8.22 per cent from Rs204.85 to dollar on June 30, 2022 to the current level of Rs221.69.

At the open market, the buying and selling of the dollar was recorded at Rs225.6 and Rs227.85 at 4:45pm PST.

Also Read

Gold Rate in KWD – Today’s Gold Price in Kuwait – 14 Nov 2022

Gold rate in Kuwait recorded an increased of KWD 548.040 per ounce...