KARACHI: The Pak Rupee eased against the dollar on Monday after maintaining a 23-day gaining streak.
The rupee ended Rs158.17 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs158.16 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Market dealers said that due to the first trading day the demand for dollars remained higher for import and corporate payments.
They said that the rupee remained dominant during the day owing to inflows of workers’ remittances and export receipts.
However, demand for import and corporate payment remained higher.
The local currency has continued its gaining momentum for 23 trading days. The interbank exchange rate was recorded at Rs163.81 on October 12, 2020 and maintained gaining streak up till November 13, 2020 to close at Rs158.16 to the dollar.
The rupee hit an all-time low against the dollar at Rs168.43 on August 26, 2020. The rupee recovered Rs10.28 since falling to an all-time low against the greenback.
The currency dealers said that improved foreign exchange reserves, lower trade deficit, inflows of workers’ remittances and surplus current account helped the local currency to make significant recovery against the US dollar.
The workers’ remittances remained above $ 2.0 billion for the fifth consecutive month in October 2020, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said a day earlier.
Workers’ remittances amounted to $ 2.3 billion during October 2020, increasing by 14.1 percent compared to October 2019.
During Jul-Oct FY21, workers’ remittances increased to $9.4 billion, recording a growth of 26.5 percent over the same period last year.
A large part of y/y increase in October 2020 was sourced from Saudi Arabia (30 percent), United States (16 percent) and the United Kingdom (14.6 percent).
Improvements in Pakistan’s FX market structure and its dynamics, efforts under the Pakistan Remittances Initiative (PRI) to formalize the flows and limited cross-border travelling contributed to the growth in remittances.
