The Pakistani rupee showed an acute tendency of feebleness in the absence of enough foreign exchange reserves, making it lose its value every single day, reported 24NewsHD TV Channel.
As per the data provided by foreign currency dealers on Friday, the rupee was depreciated by two paisa in the interbank trading and ended the day at at Rs226.43.
Yesterday, the local unit, however, managed to snap a losing streak and let the American currency notch up only by four paisa on the back of Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s statement that the country was not going to default. The dollar was closed at Rs226.41 on Thursday.
But, today’s trading activity was not in favour of PKR as depleting forex reserves are impacting adversely on its stability.
The country’s official foreign exchange reserves have fallen to an alarming level of $5.82 billion by week ended December 23, 2023, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan on Thursday.
The official foreign exchange reserves of the SBP fell by $294 million to $5.822 billion by week ended December 23, 2022 as compared with $6.116 billion a week ago i.e. December 16, 2022.
The present level of the official reserves have created default like situation as the country may unable to pay for foreign trade in coming days.
The import bill of the country for the month of November 2022 was recorded at $5.18 billion, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
This shows the official foreign exchange reserves of the country have capacity to provide import cover for only 1.2 months. The benchmark foreign exchange reserves of a central bank should be at a level to provide three months import cover.
Reporter Ashraf Khan