KARACHI
Pakistani rupee plummeted against the US dollar for the third straight day and depreciated by Rs5.38 paisas (-1.85 percent) on Wednesday.
The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the dollar opened at Rs284.84 in the interbank market and closed at Rs290.22. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 289/292 per dollar against 288/290 a dollar a session earlier.
During the current fiscal year 2022-23, Pakistani rupee has lost Rs84.35 against the US dollar in the interbank, while it plummeted by Rs63.79 against the greenback in the current year.
Pakistan has been facing a shortage in its foreign exchange reserves for quite some time, which is affecting the overall exchange rate, and business and economic activity in the country. Moody’s Investor Service has warned that Pakistan could default without an International Monetary Fund bailout as its financing options beyond June are uncertain. “We consider that Pakistan will meet its external payments for the remainder of this fiscal year ending in June,” according to Moody’s.
The uncertainty over the ninth review of Pakistan’s economy by the IMF under its loan programme has resulted in the rupee sliding. The Washington-based lender has yet to approve the release of the crucial instalment of $1.1 billion, originally due to be disbursed in November last year as part of a $6 billion bailout secured in 2019.
Separately, the SBP reported that workers’ remittances for the month of April 2023 were recorded at $2.21 billion against $2.53 billion in March. Overall inflows for the first ten months of the current fiscal year clocked in at Rs22.74 billion, plummeting by 13 percent on a year-on-year basis.
In a related development, the Finance Division informed that the government has arranged the rollover/repayment of $3.7 billion debt, which was supposed to be repaid by the end of June 2023.
