KARACHI
Pakistani rupee improved by 25 paisas (+0.09 percent) against the US dollar in the inter-bank market for the fourth straight session on Friday and closed the fifth consecutive week on a positive note.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 283.51 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 283.26.
The local unit improved by 61 paisas during this week while it has gained Rs3.77 during the previous five weeks. Similarly, the rupee improved by Rs5.03 during the current fiscal year 2023-24. However, the rupee depreciated by Rs52.42 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 second 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 session, according to data provided by the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP). The rupee also remained almost stable against the greenback last week.
In a related development, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $100 million during the last week. The 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 country’s foreign exchange reserves are likely to increase in coming months as the Pakistan and IMF have reached a staff-level agreement on November 15 after the first review under Pakistan’s Stand By Agreement (SBA). However, it is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board on January 11. Upon approval, Pakistan will get inflows amounting to $700 million.
The IMF’s SBA $ 3 billion to be concluded in the second week of April 2024 and so far $ 1.2 billion have been released in July this year, while remaining disbursement under the programme is about $1.8 billion.
On the other hand, the workers’ remittances dropped by 8.63 percent month-on-month in November to $2.25 billion as compared to $2.46 billion in October. During the first five months of the current fiscal year 2023-24, the total remittances stood at $11.05 billion as compared to $12.32 billion in the same period of the last financial year, depicting a decline of 10.33 percent.
