April 01, 2022 (MLN): The sliding Pakistani rupee (PKR) has further depreciated by 61 paisa against the US dollar on Friday to close the week at 184.09 against the greenback, compared to the previous day’s settlement of PKR 183.48.
The outgoing week was proved to be the roughest slide for the local currency as it has crossed the mark of PKR 184 per USD while losing its value by 2.3 rupees during five trading sessions. The previous week was concluded at PKR 181.78 per USD.
During today’s trading session, the domestic unit endured a volatile trading session with quotes being recorded in a range of 85 paisa showing an intraday high bid of 184.35 and an intraday low offer of 183.70.
The sharp decline in PKR is linked to a set of factors including political uncertainty, delay in the IMF program and a significant decrease in foreign exchange reserves.
According to the experts, the heated political environment has created uncertainty therefore, in order to gain back stability, the dust needs to be settled at the earliest.
From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs26.54 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by Rs7.57 in CY22, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a decline of 0.33%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 17.28% against the greenback, reaching its lowest at 184.09 today and touching its high of 152.27 on May 7, 2021.
Furthermore, the local unit has weakened by 11.36% since its high on March 31, 2021, against EUR. While, it has dropped by 13.24% against GBP since its high on April 09, 2021.
Within the open market, PKR was traded at 184.50/185.50 per USD.
Meanwhile, the currency lost 60 paisa to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 241.63 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 241.04 per GBP.
On the other hand, PKR's value strengthened by 1.1 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 203.65 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted two Open Market Operations (OMOs) today, in which it injected a total amount of Rs3.1 trillion into the market for 7 days at 9.8 percent.
The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 10.30/10.40 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 10.15/10.25 percent.
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