May 26, 2022 (MLN): The downward journey of the Pakistani rupee (PKR) continued on Thursday against the US dollar in the interbank market as the currency settled the trade at PKR 202.01 compared to yesterday’s closing of PKR 201.92 per USD.
Throughout the session, PKR traded in a range of 1.4 rupees per USD showing an intraday high bid of 202.50 and an intraday low offer of 201.90.
Delay in the IMF bailout package is continuously putting pressure on the domestic currency as Pakistan is slowly running out of dollars.
From the previous week, everyone eying the Doha talks, however, the talks ended without any assistance package announcement rather the package has been subjected to the removal of energy subsidy.
The country needs cash due to depleting foreign exchange reserves. Delay will have a chain effect, Asad Rizvi, the former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan said.
With few choices Political uncertainty is hurting the economy, he added.
From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs44.46 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by Rs25.49 in CYTD, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a decline of 8.08%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 23.57% against the greenback, reached its lowest at 202 today, and touched its high of 154.39 on May 31, 2021.
Furthermore, the local unit has weakened by 13.53% since its high on July 02, 2021, against EUR while, it has dropped by 14.55% against GBP since its high on July 02, 2021.
In addition, the performance of PKR remained bleak against major currencies in the month to date as it weakened by 10.25%, 9.39%, 9.39%, 8.18%, 8.08%, 8.07%, and 6.42% against JPY, EUR, CHF, AED, SAR, GBP, and CNY, respectively.
Within the open market, PKR was traded at 202/203.5 per USD.
Meanwhile, the currency lost 84 paisa to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 254.27 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 253.42 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 11 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 216.03 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 12.75/12.85 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 13.65/13.75 percent.
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