July 13, 2023 (MLN): On the back of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s approval for the 9-month Stand-By-Agreement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of $3 billion, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) has registered a gain of around 3.47 rupees against the greenback as the trades were reported at PKR 274 per USD during intraday trading today.
The dollar was being quoted at 277.5/ 274 (09:43 PST) when compared to the previous day’s close of 277.47 per USD.
While in the open market, the dollar was being quoted at 278/279.
The positive news flow one after another in recent days has sparked investors' confidence.
To note, PKR has gained 12.22 rupees against the USD since the signing of the long-standing staff-level agreement with the IMF on a $3 billion nine-month SBA on June 29, 2023.
It is worth noting that in the past three days, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received a $2bn deposit from Saudi Arabia and a $1bn deposit from United Arab Emirates (UAE) on top of this $3bn approval.
These inflows will increase Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves by a total of $4.2bn this week.
To note, as of June 30, 2023, the country's total reserves stood at $9.75bn.
Moreover, on Monday, Fitch Ratings upgraded Pakistan's Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to 'CCC' from 'CCC-'.
These latest developments have given Pakistan breathing room and lowered the chances of a payment default.
As a result, the economy has started to move towards stability.
