KARACHI
Pakistani rupee shed 63 paisas (-0.35 percent) against the US dollar on Monday amid surging crude oil prices and their impact on the global economy.
The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the dollar opened at Rs177.50 in the interbank market and closed at Rs178.13. The rupee witnessed a trading range of 63 paisas during the session, showing the intraday high bid of 178.10 and low offer of 177.85. Within the open market, the rupee was traded unchanged at 177.50/178.50 per dollar.
On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of its main competitors, extended the rally further and surpassed the 99.00 barrier at the beginning of the week. The acute upside in the greenback remains well and sound for the third session in a row and reached levels last traded back in late May 2020. The Russia-Ukraine war-led risk aversion continues to bolster the dollar and keeps the index well bid on the back of the deterioration of the geopolitical arena.
Overall, the rupee shed 39 paisas against the American currency last week, while the local unit devalued by 20.70 during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 and Rs1.68 during the current year 2022.
According to experts, the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pushed commodity prices to their record historic high level. Given the rising commodity prices, the soaring import bill has badly hit the current account balance of Pakistan which created a spell of depreciation around the rupee. They said that higher dollar’s demand for oil payment may further deteriorate the rupee value.
Meanwhile, Pakistan remained on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) despite the fact that Pakistan had fulfilled the anti-money laundering watchdog’s maximum technical requirements which also shattered traders’ confidence.
