Islamabad: The Pakistani rupee on Tuesday surpassed all prior records against the US dollar after hitting a fresh record low of PKR 221 against the US dollar in the interbank market.
The currency fell by PKR 5.80 in the interbank market on Tuesday after it closed at PKR 215.20 on Monday, Geo News reported citing the data released by Tresmark, a platform for treasury markets. The Pakistani rupee lost PKR 4.25 or 1.97 per cent against the US dollar, as per the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Monday.
The currency witnessed the highest day-on-day depreciation since March 26, 2020.
It was trading at Rs222 against the dollar in the open market today, local media reported.
“The dollar is getting stronger in the global market almost against all the world currencies and the Pakistani Rupee is not exception,” Khurram Schezad, the CEO of investment banking platform Alpha Beta Core, said.
He added that the external account issues of Pakistan “are not settled as yet, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is yet to be on board, and the flows are yet to materialise”.
“Global rating agencies have put a negative outlook on the economy, so that is an additional burden that is weighing on the financial markets in general and foreign exchange market in particular,” Schezad added.
A day earlier, The Pakistani rupee has dropped to PKR 212 against the US dollar.
The political uncertainty in the country due to the by-elections in Punjab and the import payment pressure took the currency to its new low, Pakistan-Kuwait Investment Company Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said.
Owing to quarter-end payments and delay in the revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the Pakistani rupee on June 21 breached 211-a-US dollar, losing PKR 2 during intra-day trading.
This fall in the rupee’s value against the greenback came after traders resorted to panic buying on reports that some commercial banks had run out of foreign currency.
Meanwhile, Arif Habib Limited analyst Ahsan Mehnti is hopeful that the currency will recover soon as the IMF deal with the country will give it a “much-needed breather”.
The IMF on Saturday said that Pakistan will receive USD 1.7 billion in tranches in the coming three to six weeks.
Since the beginning of this fiscal year (July 1, 2021) to date, the rupee has collectively dropped over 30.65 per cent (or PKR 48.29) compared to the previous fiscal year’s close at PKR 157.54.
The rupee has maintained a downward trend for the last 13 months. It has lost over 33.20 per cent (or PKR 50.56) to date, compared to the record high of PKR 152.27 recorded in May 2021, reported Geo News.
