KARACHI: Pakistani rupee extended gains against the US dollar in the inter-bank market for the eighth consecutive session on Friday and closed the ninth straight week on a positive note. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 281.11 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed at 280.36, gaining 75 paisas (+0.27 percent) on a day-on-day basis. This has been the highest level of the local unit against the greenback since October 26, 2023. Overall, the local unit improved by Rs1.04 against the greenback this week while it has gained Rs6.67 during the previous nine weeks. Similarly, the rupee improved by Rs7.93 during the current fiscal year 2023-24 and Rs1.5 in the current year. The rupee gained Rs3.31 against the US dollar in December, while it shed Rs3.69 against the US dollar in November after gaining Rs6.26 (+2.23 percent) against the greenback in the month of October. TLTP
\nThe currency surged more than 6 percent in September.
\nOn the other hand, the local unit inched up against the greenback in the open market. The rupee was quoted at 279.67 for buying and 281.94 for selling, according to data provided by different exchange companies. The rupee gained Rs3.50 against the greenback in December while it surged by 50 paisas against the greenback last week.
\nThe Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the first review of Pakistan\u2019s economic reform programme supported by the IMF\u2019s staff-level agreement (SLA) on Thursday. The Board\u2019s decision allows for an immediate disbursement of SDR 528 million (around $700 million), bringing total disbursements under the arrangement to SDR 1.422 billion (about $1.9 billion).
\nOn the other hand, Pakistan\u2019s sovereign international dollar bonds rose on Thursday. The bonds rose by up to 1.77 cents by 0857 GMT, with the 2026 bonds rising the most to 70.79 cents on the dollar, according to Tradeweb data.
\nIn another related development, the country\u2019s total liquid foreign exchange reserves increased by $36 million during the last week due to a surge in commercial banks\u2019 reserves. The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at $13.257 billion as of January 5, 2024 compared to $13.221 billion as of December 29, 2023. The break-up of the foreign reserves position shows that SBP\u2019s reserves decreased by $66 million to $8.155 billion due to debt repayments. However, net foreign reserves held by commercial banks rose by $102 million to $5.102 billion from $4.999 billion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KARACHI: Pakistani rupee extended gains against the US dollar in the inter-bank market for the eighth consecutive session on Friday and closed the ninth straight week on a positive note. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a tweet that the rupee opened at 281.11 against the dollar in the interbank market and closed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-380515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"\n