KARACHI
Pakistani rupee weakened against the US dollar for the second straight session by 89 paisas (-0.31 percent) in the interbank market on Friday.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 287.60 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 288.49. On a week-on-week basis, the rupee depreciated by Rs1.52 (-0.53 percent) as compared to the previous week.
During the current fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistani rupee has shed Rs2.50 against the US dollar in the interbank market, while it plummeted by Rs61.06 against the greenback in the current year.
However, the local unit depreciated against the greenback in the open market by Re1 (-0.32 percent). The rupee was quoted in the range of 295-298 against the dollar in the open market as compared to 294-297 a session earlier. In the black market/Hundi, the dollar remained at Rs310.
In a related development, workers’ remittances decreased by 19.28 percent on a year-on-year basis in July to $2.03 billion, compared to $2.51 billion in the same month of last year. Similarly, on a monthly basis, workers’ remittances dropped by 7.33 percent as compared to $2.19 billion in June. The inflows mainly came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America, with Saudi Arabia being the largest contributor at $486.7 million.
On the other hand, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank dropped by $110 million to stand at $8.04 billion in the week ending August 4. Total reserves of the country decreased by $125 million to $13.33 billion. The reserves of commercial banks also fell by $14 million to stand at $5.29 billion during the week under review.
Pakistan expects to roll over almost half of its maturing debt in fiscal year 2024. This includes principal repayment of about $21 billion and interest payments of $3.3 billion. Out of the $21 billion principal repayments, the SBP expects a rollover of around $11.3 billion. Pakistan has successfully managed to have an agreement for the rollover of $5.3 billion, while another $6 billion are expected to be rolled over. Out of the remaining $10 billion, the $1.5 billion principal amount has been repaid in July, and $8.5 billion would be repaid further.
