KARACHI: Pakistan rupee strengthened against the US dollar in the interbank for the second consecutive day and recovered Rs0.19 (+0.11 percent) on Friday. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the US dollar opened at Rs165.81 and closed at Rs165.62. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at Rs165.60/166.40 per dollar. Overall, Pakistani rupee shed Rs1.44 against the US dollar during this week, while depreciation during the fiscal year 2021-22 has been Rs8.26. The local unit has shed Rs5.43 against the US dollar in the current year 2021. According to currency experts, the market witnessed sufficient supply of dollars from export receipts and workers’ remittances, which helped the rupee make gains. They, however, said that demand for import payment remained high due to last trading day of the week. TLTP
They said the external payments pressure would continue to haunt the local currency in the coming days.
They said the rupee struggled till mid-week owing to the situation in Afghanistan and higher import bill. They said that delay in payments from Afghanistan against Pakistan’s export created pressure on the rupee. They pointed out that Afghan traders are opening import LCs from Pakistan as they cannot open from their own country due to ongoing turbulence which has also weighed on the rupee.
