The Pakistani rupee which showed robustness after the arrival of new finance minister has again resumed its downward trajectory against the US dollar as the local unit shed another 82 paisas in the interbank trading on Tuesday, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
According to the foreign exchange dealers, the value of US dollar was appreciated by 82 paisas showing its intrabank trading rate at Rs219.71 during the trading activity on Tuesday.
Yesterday, the American currency gained 46 paisa and settled at PKR 218.89.
During last five trading sessions, the US dollar has gone up by Rs1.75.
The financial experts said that pressure was being seen on the Pakistani rupee due to external repayment of commercial borrowing and import bills. Besides these, melting foreign exchange reserves, political noise and bleak macros are factors behind the recent fall of the rupee.
The country is facing severe liquidity crunch as Pakistan’s reserves are dwindling quickly. The State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves dropped $303 million to a three-year low of $7.597 billion on the week ended on Oct 7, 2022, according to the SBP.
The country has also witnessed a 12 per cent decline in the year-on-year remittances in September adding to the low reserves woes.
Another factor which could be attributed to the negative sentiment in the market was Moody’s rating. The international agency downgraded the rating of Pakistan’s five commercial banks last month while maintaining a negative outlook for the country.
Reporter Ashraf Khan