KARACHI
Pakistani rupee rejoined the streak of setting new lows against the US dollar after a pause of one session, and plummeted to 181.78 on Friday.
The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the dollar opened at Rs181.73 in the interbank market and closed at Rs181.78 after shedding 5 paisas (-0.03). The rupee has set 10 all-time lowest levels in the interbank market against the greenback during the last 13 sessions and they are 181.78 (March 25), 181.73 (March 22), 181.25 (March 21), 180.57 (March 18), 180.07 (March 17), 179.44 (March 16), 179.22 (March 15), 178.98 (March 14), 178.63 (March 09) and 178.61 (March 08).
The rupee witnessed a trading range of 22 paisas during the session, showing the intra-day high bid of 181.95 and low offer of 181.75. Within the open market, the rupee was traded unchanged at 181.70/182.70 per dollar.
On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of its main competitors, slipped to 98.40 following two daily gains in a row. The dollar shed ground on the back of the better mood in the risk-associated universe and a mild corrective downside in the US treasury bond yields.
Overall, the rupee shed Rs1.21 during this week and Rs2.06 last week. The local unit devalued by Rs24.35 during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 and Rs5.33 during the current year 2022.
According to experts, political instability in the country along with higher commodity prices in the global market has badly hit the stability of the rupee in the interbank.
They said 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. The country’s overall import bill in February jumped 28.09 percent to $5.89 billion against $4.6 billion in the corresponding month last year. They said that higher dollar’s demand for oil payment may further deteriorate the rupee value.
