December 23, 2021 (MLN): The strugglingPakistani rupee (PKR) managed to hold its position today in the interbank session as the currency closed the trade at PKR 178.12.
Yesterday, the local unit had settled at its weakest level after hitting yet another new lows of 178.15.
From July’21 to date, the local unit has lostRs20.57 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by PKR18.28 in CY21, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a decline of 1.35%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
The rupee traded in a narrow range of 25 paisa showing an intraday high bid of 178.25 and an intraday low offer of 178.
This week despite Omicron, oil prices surged by $5 and if measures are not taken to curb imports, the trade gap will bother, Asad Rizvi, the former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan said.
Within the open market, PKR was traded at 178.10/178.15 per USD.
Alternatively, the currency lost 1.8 rupees to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 238.08 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 236.29 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 1.1 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 201.84 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.90/10.10 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 9.75/9.85 percent.
