February 10, 2023 (MLN): On the back of IMF optimism, and an improved supply of dollars in the market, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has gained 7.3 rupees against the greenback to settle the week at PKR 269.28 per USD, compared to to the previous week closing of PKR 276.58 per USD.
Within today's session, PKR appreciated by 1.2 rupees against the greenback, showing an intraday high bid of 271.5 and low offer of 269 while in the open market, PKR was traded at 270.5/273 per USD.
It is pertinent to note that throughout the week, the local unit remained under a gaining spree on the news flows pertaining to Pakistan-IMF talks.
During a meeting with the IMF team on Wednesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif assured the delegation of the complete implementation of the program and progress towards goals.
While on the same day, Minister of State for Finance, Ayesha Ghaus Pasha said that the government is working hard to reach an agreement with the IMF while minimizing the burden on the common people.
"We will give the good news to the nation regarding the IMF deal tonight as the talks between the government and the IMF have almost been concluded," Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar said during the media talk.
In continuation of yesterday's meeting, the fund has released a statement wherein it said, Virtual discussions between the IMF and Pakistan will continue in the coming days to finalize the bailout package.
“Considerable progress was made during the mission on policy measures to address domestic and external imbalances," the statement added.
Right after this statement, the federal minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar said that the federal government will impose taxes worth Rs170 billion through an ordinance or finance bill to complete the IMF program against the false reporting of Rs500bn to Rs600bn.
Speaking about the development of IMF talks, he said, "The government is following standard procedures outlined by the fund in its efforts to stabilize the economy. Before traveling, the IMF released its Memorandum for Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) document, which outlines the measures proposed to address the country's economic challenges."
The officials will review the MEFP document thoroughly until Monday and hold talks with the IMF on the same day. The focus of these discussions will be to address the measures proposed to stop the bleeding of the economy, which has been in a state of decline for the last three years, he added.
After this review, the country will get $1.2bn which is much needed for the economy.
It seems that cash-strapped Pakistan will have to wait a few more days to get a fresh breeze from the fund's side.
At present, the foreign exchange reserves held by the Central Bank have reached nine years three-month low, standing at $2.92bn, and fell by $170 million during the week ended on February 03, 2023. The outflow of $170mn is attributed to external debt payment.
Since the start of the calendar year 2023, the SBP Foreign reserves decreased by $2.6bn.
Moreover, the reserves held by the commercial bank decreased by $32.6mn to $5.62bn, and the total net reserves held by the country fell to $8.54bn.
It is important to note that the current level of foreign currency reserves is sufficient to cover only 0.60 months of import bills.
In FYTD, PKR lost 64.43 rupees or 23.93%, while it plummeted by 42.85 rupees or 15.91% against the USD in CYTD. On the other hand, within the last seven sessions, the local unit moved up by 2.71%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.
Meanwhile, the currency gained 1 rupee against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 326.16 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 327.2 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value strengthened by 1.2 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 289.24 at the interbank today.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) conducted a Shariah-compliant Mudarabah Open Market Operation (OMO) today, in which it injected Rs125 billion into the market for 77 days at a 17.25% cut-off rate.
The overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 17.15%/17.30%, whereas the 1-week rate was 16.65%/16.75%.
Copyright Mettis Link News
Posted on: 2023-02-10T17:38:28+05:00
