KARACHI
Pakistani rupee crashed against the US dollar in the interbank market for the fifth successive session by Rs1.35 (-0.47 percent) on Thursday.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 283.80 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 285.15. During the last five sessions, the rupee has weakened against the US dollar by Rs8.69 in the interbank market.
Similarly, the local unit depreciated against the greenback in the open market by Rs2 (-0.69 percent).
The rupee was quoted in the range of 288-291 against the dollar in the open market as compared to 286-289 a session earlier. In the black market/Hundi, the dollar was quoted at Rs302 against Rs300 a session earlier.
During the recently started fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistani rupee has gained Rs0.88 against the US dollar in the interbank market, while it plummeted by Rs57.72 against the greenback in the current year.
The PKR crashed again for the 5th consecutive day today but the gap between open and interbank PKR/USD rates continued to expand despite the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) premium limit of 1.25 percent on the exchange rate. According to experts, anomalous premiums are distorting the black market with more intensity; however, they were hopeful that the local unit will dock somewhere in the region of 290 and form resistance as this might indicate the likely acceptable value of the local unit against the greenback. They said that undocumented channels are booming with an unsupervised exchange of USD to PKR while overall, documented counters saw little to no activity as most trades had shifted beyond the scope of the regulator.
According to experts, the knee-jerk reaction after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, which resulted in the rupee’s appreciation, is reversing. They said that as import restrictions are being lifted amid IMF demands, the pressure would stay on the local currency, adding that the backlog created due to import and dividend restrictions is being cleared. They said that unless remittances and exports increase, the rupee would continue to show gradual depreciation.
In a related development, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar told the Asian Development Bank (ADB) delegation on Wednesday that the government remains committed to completing the IMF 9-month Stand-By Agreement (SBA).
