US dollar bulldozes Pakistani rupee to historic low
Share prices surge by 175 points at stock exchange
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The spineless rupee is showing extreme weakness against the US dollar as the value of the greenback has appreciated by Rs1.56 in the interbank trading, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
At the start of the trading session on Tuesday, the dollar saw a little slide and lost 10 paisas against the rupee but within hours it showed robustness and gained Rs1.56 as the business closed, climbing to a new historic level against the Pakistani currency. After this gain, the greenback ended the day at Rs195.74 in interbank trading.
Yesterday, the Pakistani currency got a ruthless thrashing by the US dollar after crossing the Rs194 mark for the first time in country’s history and was closed at Rs194.18.
In the open market, the US dollar also hit a historic mark of Rs198 as it gained Rs1.50 in value on Tuesday.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/V0LiF62fhX pic.twitter.com/gWAJw1uQ0y
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) May 17, 2022
The experts said that the rise of the US dollar was due to the continued pressure from the import bill on the Pakistani rupee and the depleting foreign reserves.
FPCC Vice President Shabbir Mansha said that if the government failed to check the devaluation of rupee, then a tsunami of inflation would hit the country.
He called upon the government to take strict decisions in order to arrest the freefall of the Pakistani currency. He demanded of the government to immediately intervene to stop the devaluation of the rupee.
Yesterday, chairing a virtual meeting with the Chairman of Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan (ECAP) Malik Bostan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed his concern over the depleting forex reserves and devaluation of currency. He directed the policymakers to devise a comprehensive strategy in consultation with the stakeholders to halt the rupee’s free fall and improve reserves.
On the other hand, the benchmark KSE-100 Index of the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) showed some resilience at the start of the trading activity and was up by 175 points while the intraday trading was reached 42,847 on KSE-100 index.
Reporters Ashrarf Khan and Habib Khan