PKR loses 21 paisa against USD

March 03, 2022 (MLN): Continuing its downward slide, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) lost a further 21 paisa against the US dollar in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at PKR 177.83.

On Wednesday, the local unit had closed the trade at PKR 177.62 per USD.

The rupee endured a relatively dull trading session with very little intraday movement, trading in a range of 30 paisa per USD showing an intraday high bid of 177.80 and an intraday low offer of 177.65.

The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pushed commodity prices to their record historic high level.  

Given the rising commodity prices, the soaring import bill has badly hit the current account balance of Pakistan which created a spell of depreciation around PKR.

An increase in exports helped in the reduction of the trade deficit to $3.1 billion but higher imports is a bad sign due to fewer business days in February. While the impact of surging oil prices will be felt till next month, Asad Rizvi, the Former Treasury Head at Chase Manhattan said.

Pakistan's merchandise trade deficit for the month of February 2022 clocked in at $3.1 billion compared to a deficit of $3.4bn in the previous month, depicting a decline of 9.7% MoM as imports declined by 2.3% MoM. 

Remittances will provide a clearer picture to determine the current account position, he added.

Meanwhile, the local unit has lost Rs20.29 against the USD from July’21 to date, while it depreciated by 1.32 paisa in CY22 with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a drop of 0.20%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

Within the open market, PKR was traded at 177.60/178.50 per USD.

Meanwhile, the currency lost 2.2 rupees to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 238.18 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 235.97 per GBP.

Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 34 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 197.25 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.25/9.50 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 9.75/9.85 percent.

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