PKR falls by 63 paisa per USD

March 07, 2022 (MLN): Continuing its journey on a slippery slope, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) fell by another 63 paisa against the US dollar in today’s interbank session as the currency settled the trade at PKR 178.13, as compared to the previous session's closing of PKR 177.8 per USD.

The rupee traded in a range of 50 paisa per USD showing an intraday high bid of 178.10 and an intraday low offer of 177.85.

It is pertinent to mention that during the initial trading hours, PKR had lost almost 70 paisa in line with other Asian currencies.

The sharp depreciation is primarily owing to the raging commodity prices in the international market which have threatened to boost imported inflation which will deteriorate the current account balance and sink PKR deeper in the spell of further depreciation.

Meanwhile, Pakistan remained on the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) despite the fact that Pakistan had fulfilled the anti-money laundering watchdog's maximum technical requirements which also shattered traders' confidence. 

The local unit has lost Rs20.58 against the USD from July’21 to date, while it depreciated by 1.41 paisa in CY22 with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a drop of 0.37%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

Within the open market, PKR was traded at 177.50/178.50 per USD.

Alternatively, the currency gained 1.2 rupees against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 235.21 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 236.45 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 1.7 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 193.76 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted an Open Market Operation (OMO) in which it injected Rs89.75 billion into the market for 4 days at 9.76 percent.

The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.80/10.00 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 9.80/9.90 percent.

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