KARACHI: The dollar fell by five paisas against the Pak Rupee (PKR) on Tuesday owing to improved supply of the foreign currency for external payments.
The rupee ended at Rs176.63 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs176.68 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the market witnessed sufficient supply from the banks to feed the demand for import and other external payments.
They said that dollar demand remained high during the day owing to rise in international oil and other commodity prices.
The experts said that the latest measures of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) helped the local currency to make gain. The central bank recently restricted the exporters to realize the export proceeds in 120 days instead of 150 days.
However, the rising import bill and falling foreign exchange reserves have still posed challenge to rupee stability in coming days.
The oil import bill of the country sharply increased by 112 per cent to $8.38 billion during first five months of the current fiscal year as compared with $3.94 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
Similarly, the foreign exchange reserves of the country fell by $255 million to $24.019 billion by week ended December 31, 2021 as compared with $24.274 billion a week ago. The official foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by $170 million to $17.686 billion by week ended December 31, 2021 as compared with $17.856 billion a week ago.
