Rupee gains 47 paisas to dollar at market open

KARACHI: The rupee gained 47 paisas against the dollar at the opening of the interbank foreign exchange market on Tuesday as the dollar is being traded at Rs174.30.

The exchange rate ended at Rs174.77 at the last the closing of interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency dealers said that clarity in inflows from IMF had sent positive sentiments in the market.

Shaukat Tarin, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, last evening made clear about the IMF loan program and said the IMF executive board would approve $1.06 billion tranche for Pakistan on January 12, 2022.

The local currency made significant gain yesterday morning after a sharp rise in interest rate announced by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). However, uncertainty about the transfer of IMF tranche left the market highly volatile.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on November 19, 2021 announced a significant increase in the key policy rate by 150 basis points to 8.75 per cent.

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The dealers said that the large imports are still threatening the local currency value. Due to high import bill the current account deficit also widened sharply.  Pakistan’s current account deficit widened to $5.08 billion during first four months (July-October) of the current fiscal year as compared to a surplus of $1.31 billion in the same period of the last year.

The local unit hit the all-time low of Rs175.73 to the dollar on November 12, 2021 in the interbank foreign exchange market.