KARACHI
Pakistani rupee strengthened against the US dollar for the second day in a row by 28 paisas (+0.16 percent).
The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement on Thursday that the dollar opened at Rs175.67 in the interbank market and closed at Rs175.39. The rupee witnessed a trading range of 42 paisas during the session, showing the intraday high bid of 175.45 and low offer of 175.25. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 176.50/177.50 per dollar.
Overall, the rupee shed 68 paisas against the American currency during the last four days, while it has depreciated by Rs17.96 during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22. However, the local unit has appreciated by Rs1.12 during the current year 2022.
The central bank on Wednesday enhanced the scope of Export Finance Scheme (EFS) – both conventional as well as Shariah based, allowing exporters to obtain financing against their export proceeds through the discounting of export bills and receivables. The move is aimed at further facilitating the exporters and encouraging timely inflow of export proceeds.
“Discounting of bills and receivables is essentially a financial transaction where an exporter surrenders future export proceeds and obtains financing in rupee for the remainder of the time period of export proceeds’ realisation,” it said. The initiative will help exporters meet their working capital needs and also incentivise them to bring in their export proceeds in a timely manner that will help to improve foreign exchange inflows in the inter-bank market. Exporters can obtain financing from banks by discounting their export bills and receivables (both post-shipment and pre-shipment) under this scheme, at rates ranging from 2-3% depending on the period of discounting.
According to market experts, the rupee is also bearing the brunt of rising commodity prices. The oil import bill recorded a sharp increase in the first seven months (July-January) of 2021-22 from a year ago owing to rising prices on the international market and massive depreciation of the rupee. The oil import bill surged 107.35 percent to $11.7 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year. TLTP
