Rupee eases by six paisas on import, corporate payment demand

Rupee eases by six paisas on import, corporate payment demand

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee ended down by six paisas on Tuesday against dollar owing to higher demand for import and corporate payments.

The rupee ended Rs168.43 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs168.37 in interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency experts said that demand from importers and corporate buyers were remained higher during the day which depressed the rupee value.

They said that the improved inflows of workers’ remittances and export receipts may helped the local unit to improve value.

The balance of payment of the country registered current account surplus i.e. 1.9 percent of the GDP during the first month of the current fiscal year.

The BOP witnessed a current account deficit of 2.8 percent of the GDP in July 2019.

The statistics revealed that the current account surplus stood at $424 million in July 2020 as compared with current account deficit of $613 million in the same month of the last year.

The current account surplus may be attributed to record inflows of workers’ remittances in July 2020. In the month under review the workers’ remittances rose to $2.77 billion. This is the highest ever level of remittances in a single month in Pakistan, according to the SBP.

The exports also exhibited 6.1 percent growth to $2 billion in July 2020 as compared with $1.88 billion in the same month of the last year. On the other hand the import bill of the country declined by 0.7 percent to $3.68 billion in July 2020 as compared with $3.71 in the same month of the last year.

The trade deficit narrowed by 7.7 percent to $1.68 billion in July 2020 as compared with the deficit of $1.83 billion in the same month of the last year.