PKR marches on, gains 68 paisa against USD

October 25, 2022 (MLN): Maintaining its gaining momentum, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has appreciated by 68 paisa against the greenback in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at PKR 219.73 per USD, against yesterday's closing of PKR 220.41 per USD.

During the session, the rupee traded in a band of 1.51 rupee per USD showing an intraday high bid of 220.50 and low offer of 219.24 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 221/223 per USD.

Though Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are at a historic low the optimism in the market was sustained by the news of ADB’s approval of $1.5 billion.

As per the latest development, the bank has finally signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide the said amount for budgetary support.

However, there is a growing concern over the availability of dollars in the open market despite its depreciation against the rupee.

“There is a shortage of US dollars in the open market,” Zafar Paracha, General Secretary at the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP), confirmed to Business Recorder.

“Dollar is being traded at Rs232 through unauthorized channels. This is attracting sellers towards the grey market, and they are avoiding formal channels of exchange companies,” he added.

He advised that government should revisit its trade and immigration policies with Afghanistan and Iran.

In FYTD, PKR lost 14.88 rupees or 6.77%, while it plummeted by 43.21 rupees or 19.67% against the USD in CYTD, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

Meanwhile, the currency gained 90 paisa against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 248.67 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 249.57 per GBP.

On the other hand, PKR's value weakened by 13 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 216.9 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 14.10/14.50 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 15.05/15.15 percent.

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