KARACHI: The rupee recovered 21 paisas against the dollar on Monday at the opening of the interbank foreign exchange market.

The dollar is being traded at Rs177.50 from last Friday’s closing of Rs177.71 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Last Friday’s closing at Rs177.71 was the highest level of the dollar against the rupee.

Currency dealers said that some inflows of export receipts and remittances helped the rupee to make some recovery.

Read more: Dollar slightly increases against PKR on December 10, 2021

They, however, said that the large import bill was keeping the rupee under pressure.

According to the official data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the import bill of the country surged by 69.17 per cent to $33 billion during the first five months (July- November) 2021/2022 as compared with $19.47 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The large imports also widened the trade deficit sharply. The trade deficit during the months under review widened by 112 per cent to $20.59 billion as compared with the deficit of $9.72 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.