March 16, 2023 (MLN): After enduring straight three sessions in the tailspin, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) on Thursday made a comeback as it appreciated by 43 paisa against the US dollar in the interbank session wherein the currency settled the trade at PKR 282.42 per USD, compared to the previous closing of PKR 282.85 per USD.
Throughout today’s session, the local unit traded in a band of 75 paisa, showing an intraday high bid of 283 and low offer of 282.5 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 282/285 per USD.
The local unit bounced back only on the hopes pertaining to IMF as the government has almost fulfilled all the conditions of the fund.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday told the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors that his government had agreed to the "toughest" conditions imposed by the IMF and a staff-level agreement would be reached soon.
He claimed that his predecessor, Imran Khan, had agreed to harsh conditions with the IMF which were later violated.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that the IMF is requesting "friendly countries" to fulfill their commitments made to the government.
In addition, the documentation for the second disbursement of $500 million out of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)'s approved rollover facility of $1.3bn has been completed by Finance Ministry.
Earlier this month, ICBC approved the rollover of a $1.3bn facility that had been repaid by Pakistan in recent months. The rollover facility is part of a larger effort to strengthen Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves and support its economic growth.
The ICBC facility is expected to help address these issues by providing Pakistan with much-needed liquidity.
The currency gained 2.1 rupees against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 341.81 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 343.89 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 3.5 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 300.13 at the interbank today.
In FYTD, PKR lost 77.57 rupees or 27.47%, while it plummeted by 56.98 rupees or 19.82% against the USD in CYTD. On the other hand, within the last seven sessions, the local unit moved up by 0.04%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 19.25%/19.75%, whereas the 1-week rate was 19.45%/19.55%.
Copyright Mettis Link News
Posted on: 2023-03-16T16:52:42+05:00
