KARACHI
Pakistani rupee maintained its winning streak against the US dollar for the 24th consecutive session in the inter-bank market on Tuesday with an appreciation of another Rs1.14.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 281.65 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 280.51, showing an appreciation of 0.41 percent.
The latest appreciation marks the longest ever winning streak of the local unite against the greenback. The rupee has advanced to the highest level of the current fiscal year 2023-23. The currency surged more than 6 percent in the past month to become the top performer in the world. The rupee has appreciated by Rs5.48 during the current fiscal year 2023-24, while it has depreciated by Rs51.09 in the current year.
However, the local unit snapped its 24 consecutive sessions’ winning row against the greenback in the open market by shedding Rs2. The rupee was quoted in the range of 277-280 a dollar against 275-278 a session earlier. The rupee has appreciated by Rs54 in the last 25 sessions.
The market experts said the government’s crackdown in the open market against currency speculators and hoarders helped this recovery. However, the room for further improvement is narrowing as the Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER) is nearing 100. If the crackdown persists, the unusual volatility widely seen in the open market would come down, they added.
They further said that the currency remains fundamentally vulnerable, as the country has yet to see a significant increase in exports and remittances, while imports remain high.
The local currency has significantly gained in the past five weeks, with analysts attributing the rise to an ongoing crackdown on illegal dollar outflows. Currency dealers said that exporters have been selling dollars on a large scale, fearing further devaluation. Moreover, reports of increased vigilance of the Afghan transit trade also contributed to the rupee’s rise, they added.
In a related development, the workers’ remittances increased by 5.34 percent on a month-on-month basis in September to $2.21 billion against $2.09 billion in August amid improved transparency coupled with stringent measures against dollar smuggling, the latest data issued by SBP revealed. However, workers’ remittances decreased by 11.3 percent on a yearly basis as compared to $2.49 billion in the same month last year. Overall, the total remittances stood at $6.33 billion in the first quarter of 2023-24 as compared to $7.9 billion in the first quarter of 2022-23, showing a fall of 19.85 percent.
