PKR slips by 49 paisa against greenback

November 21, 2022 (MLN): Maintaining its long losing streak, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has depreciated by 49 paisa against the US dollar in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at PKR 223.66 per USD, compared to the session's closing of PKR 223.17 per USD.

In today’s session alone, the local unit slipped by 60 paisa against the US dollar, marking an intraday high bid of 223.75 and low offer of 223.40 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 228.50/231 per USD.

It is pertinent to mention that today was the sixth consecutive session wherein PKR continued its downward journey after taking a breather earlier this month.

The rising dollar demand in the interbank market as importers had outstanding Letters of Credit (LCs) was the prime reason behind this depreciation spell. However, bleak macros and rising political noise have also put pressure on the local unit.

In addition, the delay in the IMF’s ninth review and the 5-year credit default swap (CDS) hitting 75.5% last week have also pushed PKR towards a bottomless pit.

In FYTD, PKR lost 18.81 rupees or 8.41%, while it plummeted by 47.15 rupees or 21.08% against the USD in CYTD, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

Alternatively, the currency gained 1.3 rupees against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 264.49 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 265.76 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 1.5 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 229.59 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 15.10/15.20%, whereas the 1-week rate was 15.05/15.15%.

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