Dollar jumps to historic high at PKR 178.98

Dollar jumps to historic high at PKR 178.98

KARACHI: The US dollar jumped to the historic high against the Pak Rupee at Rs178.98 on Monday owing to foreign currency demand for import payments.

The rupee ended Rs178.98 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs178.51 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

READ MORE: Dollar eases by 12 paisas to PKR in interbank

The dollar previously hit all-time high at Rs178.63 on March 10, 2022.

Currency experts said that the rupee was under pressure because the market was opened after two weekly holidays.

Further, dollar demand for commodity imports related to the holy month of Ramzan put pressure on the local currency.

READ MORE: Rupee ends flat to dollar, maintains all-time low level

The volatile oil prices in international markets also brought down the local currency.

The oil prices in the international markets are still above $108 per barrel, which is much above the calculated prices of petroleum products in the domestic market.

It is important to note that the PTI government had announced to reduce Rs10 per liter each on petrol and diesel. In order to lower the prices. The government is absorbing billions of rupees loss every month through zero rating of sales tax on petroleum products and lowering the petroleum levy.

READ MORE: Dollar inches up to make new high at PKR 178.63

Pakistan is one of the major importers of petroleum products and changes in the prices directly affects the oil import bill.

The import bill of petroleum group recorded an increase of 107 per cent to $11.7 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year as compared with $5.64 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The fall in foreign exchange reserves also deteriorating the rupee value. The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country slipped by $206 million to $22.669 billion by the week ended March 04, 2022 as against $22.875 billion a week ago.

READ MORE: Rupee falls to all-time low against dollar at Rs178.61