KARACHI
Pakistani rupee improved by 5 paisas (+0.02 percent) against the US dollar in the inter-bank market for the fifth straight session on Monday while it remained unchanged in the open market.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 283.26 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 283.21.
The local unit improved by 61 paisas against the greenback last week while it has gained Rs3.77 during the previous five weeks. Similarly, the rupee improved by Rs5.08 during the current fiscal year 2023-24.
However, the rupee depreciated by Rs52.37 in the current year. The rupee shed Rs3.69 against the US dollar in November after gaining 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.
On the other hand, the local unit remained unchanged for the third straight day against the greenback in the open market.
The rupee was quoted at 281.50 for buying and 284.50 for selling as compared to the same rates in the previous sessions, according to data provided by the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP).
The rupee gained 50 paisas against the greenback last week.
The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) executive board will meet on January 11 to consider the final approval to disburse the next $700 million tranche from its current loan programme with Pakistan. Pakistan has been facing an acute balance of payment crisis, along with historically high inflation and an unprecedented currency devaluation in the past couple of years.
In a related development, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $100 million last week. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday that total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at $ 12.206 billion as of December 8, 2023 compared to $ 12.107 billion on December 1, 2023. During the week under review, SBP’s reserves increased by $21 million to $ 7.041 billion and net foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks surged by $79 million to $5.166 billion at the end of last week.
The central bank kept its key rate unchanged at a record 22 percent on Tuesday as it waits for the effects of previous hikes to filter through the economy and further tame retail inflation. The bank’s monetary policy committee said that an increase in gas prices last month could affect the inflation outlook.
The rate was raised to 22 percent in an off-cycle meeting in June as a last-gasp attempt to secure a $3 billion bailout from the IMF as part of a reforms programme aimed at bringing stability to the troubled $350 billion economy. The SBP and the IMF both say that they expect inflation to ease in the current financial year ending in June 2024, but inflation remained at 29.2 percent in November after energy prices were hiked to meet reform targets.
