Rupee depreciates by 13 paisas ahead weekly holidays

Rupee depreciates by 13 paisas ahead weekly holidays

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee depreciated by 13 paisas against the dollar on Friday owing to higher demand ahead of weekly holidays and deficit in current account on increased import bill.

The rupee ended Rs160.75 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs160.62 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency dealers said that the demand for the dollar was remained higher ahead of two weekly holidays. Further, the current account posted a deficit in December 2020 after staying in positive for five consecutive months.

Pakistan’s Current Account (C/A) clocked in a deficit of $662 million in Dec-2020 (vs. a surplus of 513 million in November 2020), worst since October 2019 and breaking a streak of five consecutive monthly C/A surplus.

Vis-à-vis last month, C/A recorded a variance of US$1,175 million, which was largely fueled by an increase of US$940 million in imports of goods. The exports of goods increased by $13 million and home remittances grew by $98 million.