January 23, 2023 (MLN): On the back of increasing economic uncertainty, 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 230.15 per USD compared to the last session's closing of PKR 229.67 per USD.
Within today’s session, the local unit traded in a band of 85 paisa, showing an intraday high bid of 230.25 and low offer of 229.65 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 240/240.48 per USD.
In the absence of foreign inflows, economic slowdown, and melting reserves, PKR remained on its traditional downward trail.
It is quite obvious that there is a delay from the government side to comply with IMF’s condition to resume stalled talks with funds which has left Pakistan unable to secure dollar inflows.
While on the other hand, the central bank has withdrawn the requirement of prior approval for imports of certain products and instead provided general guidance to banks to prioritize the import of essential items such as food, pharmaceuticals, and energy.
To further facilitate importers, SBP has advised banks to provide one-time facilitation for importers by extending payment terms to 180 days or longer or arranging funds from abroad to settle pending import payments.
In FYTD, PKR lost 25.3 rupees or 11%, while it plummeted by 0.79% against the USD in the last seven sessions, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
Meanwhile, the currency lost 1.8 rupees to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 285.65 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 283.89 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 2.3 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 251.19 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 16.70%/16.90%, whereas the 1-week rate was 16.35%/16.45%.
