August 23, 2021 (MLN): Pakistani rupee (PKR) continued its downward journey today as the currency closed at PKR164.43 per USD, its lowest close since October 2, 2020 and 24 paisa lower than the last session's closing of PKR 164.18 per USD.
The rupee traded within a very narrow range of 44 paisa per USD showing an intraday high bid of 164.60 and an intraday Low offer of 164.22.
As per data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Friday, Pak Rupee's Real Effective Exchange Rate Index (REER) decreased by 0.39 percent in July 2021 to a provisional value of 99.42, against the estimated 97, from the revised value of 99.81 in June 2021.
This estimation was made without realizing that remittances will not be sufficient as exports gain is nominal while higher import bill may push current account balance in to deficit that would further widen the trade gap, resulting weak PKR, Asad Rizvi, the former treasury head at Chase Manhattan said.
Within the Open Market, PKR was traded at 163.80/164.50 per USD.
According to the data compiled by Mettis Global, the home unit has depreciated by 4.19% and 2.79% in FY22 and CY21, respectively with the month-to-date (MTD) position showing a drop of 1.21%.
Meanwhile, the currency lost 84 paisa to the Pound Sterling as the day's closing quote stood at PKR 224.45 per GBP, while the previous session closed at PKR 223.61 per GBP.
Similarly, PKR's value weakened by 1.1 rupees against EUR which closed at PKR 192.82 at the interbank today.
On another note, within the money market, the overnight repo rate towards close of the session was 6.75/7.00 percent, whereas the 1 week rate was 7.00/7.05 percent.
