KARACHI
Pakistani rupee recorded gains against the US dollar in the inter-bank market for the second straight session and improved by 88 paisas (+0.31 percent) on Friday.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that the rupee opened at 287.38 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 286.50. The rupee improved by 53 paisas in the current week and depreciated by Rs2.72 last week. On the other hand, the rupee has appreciated by Rs1.49 during the current fiscal year 2023-24 and Rs54.82 in the current year.
The rupee gained Rs6.26 (+2.23 percent) against the greenback in the month of October. The currency surged more than 6 percent in September to become the top performer in the world.
Similarly, the Pakistani rupee appreciated by 50 paisas against the greenback in the open market. The rupee was quoted in the range of 286-289 a dollar as compared to 287-290 in the previous session. The rupee has recovered by Rs42.5 against the dollar in the last 51 sessions in the open market. During the last week, the PKR lost Rs3 for both buying and selling against the USD.
The back to back improvement in rupee’s value came after the government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reached a staff-level agreement on Wednesday that paved the way for Pakistan to receive $700 as part of the stand-by agreement. The IMF funds to be issued are a second tranche of the nine-month bailout package and are subject to approval from the IMF’s executive board, the lender said in a statement. This will bring total disbursements under the $3 billion package, approved in July, to almost $1.9 billion.
The gap between rates in the inter-bank and open markets is required to be less than 1.25% under one of the structural benchmarks set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“After months of hard work, we have successfully reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on the first review of the $3 billion SBA,” said Caretaker Minister for Finance, Shamshad Akhtar while addressing the Future Summit on Thursday. “This is a very positive development for the economy and will support our efforts for macroeconomic stability,” she said.
Shamshad was of the view that the IMF SBA and support from other development partners provide the Pakistani authorities an opportunity to get the country’s economy back on track.
