KARACHI: The rupee recovered three paisas from it’s all-time low against the dollar on Thursday on tightening of foreign exchange buying in the open market, dealers said.

The rupee ended at Rs178.12 against the greenback from the previous day’s closing of Rs178.15 in the interbank foreign exchange market. The rupee recorded the all-time low of Rs178.15 on Wednesday.

The dealers said the tightening of foreign exchange buying by the central bank deterred speculative buying.

The SBP on December 19, 2021 imposed restrictions on the foreign exchange buying by individuals from the open market to discourage speculative gains. As per the restrictions an individual can buy a maximum of $10,000/day and $100,000 in a year.

The dealers; however, said the dollar demand remained high during the day for import and corporate payments. However, some inflows in the shape of workers remittances and export receipts helped the rupee recover.

The widening of trade deficit and the current account deficit are still major threats to the rupee stability, the dealers said.

Pakistan’s current account deficit has ballooned to $7 billion during the first five months (July-November) 2021/22. The current account posted a surplus of $1.87 billion during the same period of the last fiscal year.

The trade deficit widened 112 per cent to $20.65 billion during the period under review, compared with the deficit of $9.72 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.

The rupee remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The local currency fell Rs20.58, or 13.05 per cent, from June 30, 2021 closing of Rs157.54 to the closing of Rs178.12 on December 23, 2021.

In the open market, the buying and selling of the dollars was recorded at Rs178.80/Rs180.50 at 4:00pm PST.

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