KARACHI: The Pak Rupee (PKR) ended down by 18 paisas against the dollar on Thursday owing to rising demand for import payments.
The rupee ended Rs176.92 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs176.74 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the market witnessed higher dollar demand for import payments.
They said that inflows of workers’ remittances and export receipts were not sufficient to support the local unit.
The experts said that the local currency had recovered sharply last week owing to presentation of mini-budget by the government, which contained import restriction measures.
However, the bill is still awaiting approval from both the upper and lower houses.
On the other hand the foreign exchange reserves were falling owing to scheduled foreign payments.
The official foreign exchange reserves of the central bank slipped by $299 million to $17.85 billion by week ended December 24, 2021 when compared with $18.15 billion a week ago. The official reserves of the SBP is import cover of 2.25 months, which is below the benchmark of three months.
