PKR settles all-time new low at 178.61/USD

March 08, 2022 (MLN): The steep decline in the Pakistani rupee (PKR)’s valuation has led to its all-time new low in today's interbank session against the US dollar as the currency settled the trade at PKR 178.61 per USD, depreciating by 48 paisa.

In Yesterday’s session, the domestic unit had closed at PKR 178.13 per USD.

The rupee traded within a very narrow range of 55 paisa per USD showing an intraday high bid of 178.65 and an intraday low offer of 178.10.

During the initial trading hours, the local unit remained under severe pressure as it had lost 57 paisa.

As per currency market experts, the deteriorating situation between Russia and Ukraine has badly hit the currency markets as well. With regards to PKR, the situation in terms of rising oil prices will badly hurt the local unit’s value in the coming days.

From July’21 to date, the local unit has lost Rs21.06 against the USD. Similarly, the rupee fell by PKR2.09 in CY22, with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a decline of 0.64%, as per data compiled by Mettis Global.

Owing to the ongoing Russia Ukraine conflict and resultant commodity price hikes, the stability of PKR has been significantly impacted. Meanwhile, political uncertainty at domestic front has also hurt local unity’s stability in the interbank.

On the other hand, the performance of PKR remained comparatively better against major currencies during the calendar year to date as the local unit appreciated by 2.94%, and 1.91% while, the local unit remained stable against CHF. However, during the same period, it has depreciated by 2.04%, 1.24%, 1.17%, and 0.90% against CNY, SAR, AED, and JPY respectively.

During the last 52 weeks, PKR lost 14.75%, reached its lowest at 178.612 on March 8, 2022, and touched its high of 152.27 on May 7, 2021.

Furthermore, the local unit has depreciated by 7.49% since its high on March 31, 2021, against EUR.  While, the local unit has weekend by 10.34% against GBP since its high on April 09, 2021.

Within the open market, PKR was traded at 178/179 per USD.

Alternatively, the currency gained 1.4 rupees against the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 233.82 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 235.21 per GBP.

On the other hand, PKR's value weakened by 18 paisa against EUR which closed at PKR 193.94 at the interbank today.

On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards the close of the session was 9.80/10.00 percent, whereas the 1-week rate was 9.95/10.05 percent.

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