Rupee ends down 23 paisas against dollar

Rupee ends down 23 paisas against dollar

KARACHI: The Pak Rupee ended down 23 paisas against dollar on Monday owing to demand for import payments.

The rupee ended Rs166.99 to the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs166.76 in interbank foreign exchange market.

The dealers said that the rupee was under pressure due to higher demand for import payment. They said that mostly demand was come from foreign buying related to commodities for the month of Ramazan.

The dealers said that the rupee however likely to gain in future owing to lower import payment demand after decline in international oil prices.

The import bill of the country has declined by 21 percent in March 2020 over the previous month owing to lockdown to contain coronavirus pandemic.

The import bill was at $3.3 billion in March 2020 as compared with $4.185 billion in February 2020, according to data released by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Friday.

Similarly, the pandemic also adversely affected the country’s exports. The exports fell by 15.56 percent to $1.8 billion in March 2020 as compared with $2.14 billion in February 2020.

The total import bill during July – March 2019/2020 fell by 14.42 percent to $38.81 billion as compared with $40.68 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

However, the exports registered increase of 2.23 percent during first nine months of current fiscal year to $17.45 billion as compared with $17 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The trade deficit during first nine months contracted by 26.45 percent to $17.36 billion as compared with the deficit of $23.61 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.