Pakistani Rupee falls further against US dollar
Shares
The rupee kept up its downward slide owing to country’s dwindling foreign exchange reserves and political mayhem.
As per the data received from money dealers on Monday, the local unit was depreciated by 25 paisas making room for the American currency to notch up to Rs224.65 at the close of the business.
On Friday, the last day of trading activity of the previous week, the US dollar was closed at Rs224.40.
The local currency is not recovering despite the assurances by the Saudi Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan that the kingdom would keep supporting cash-starved Pakistan by shoring up deposits and making investments through its Public Investment Fund.
But the PKR remained under pressure almost the entire last week owing to low forex reserves which have reached multi-year low, dropping to $6.72 billion during the week that ended on Dec 2, the central bank said on Thursday.
Besides this, the inflows through Roshan Digital Account are not impressive as the overseas Pakistanis deposited $141mn into RDA in November which was 3.42% lower when compared with $146mn recorded in the previous month and 41% lower when compared with $239mn in November 2021.
Another factor which is attributing to the PKR’s depreciation is smuggling of the US dollar from Pakistan to neighbor countries and emergence of grey market in the country which has popped up because of a widening difference in the USD exchange rate in the open market and interbank.
