KARACHI: The US dollar on Thursday maintained the record high level of Rs177.98 at closing of interbank foreign exchange market.
The Pak Rupee ended unchanged against the dollar at previous day’s closing of Rs177.98, which was the lowest level of the rupee.
READ MORE: Rupee falls to new record low despite policy rate hike
Currency experts said that the market witnessed high dollar demand for import and corporate payments. However, sufficient inflows of the dollar helped the rupee to keep value at previous day’s level.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on December 14, 2021 announced another 100 basis points increase in the key policy rate to 9.75 per cent. It was the third straight increase in the policy rate by the central bank since September 2021. However, the free-fall in rupee continued due to higher dollar demand for import payments.
READ MORE: Dollar eases against PKR on expected policy rate rise
According to the official data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), the import bill of the country surged by 69.17 per cent to $33 billion during the first five months (July – November) 2021/2022 as compared with $19.47 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
