Rupee ends firmer despite sharp decline in foreign exchange reserves

KARACHI: Pakistani Rupee (PKR) ended firmer against the dollar on Friday despite sharp decline in foreign exchange reserves of the country.

The exchange rate ended at PKR 228.15 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of PKR 228.14 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

Currency experts said that some pledges related to foreign inflows helped the local currency to show resistance against the greenback.

A day earlier, UAE pledged an amount of $3 billion for Pakistan. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia signed $1 billion oil facility with Pakistan.

However, the foreign exchange reserves of the country sharply declined as per data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) a day earlier.

Official foreign exchange reserves of SBP fell to only $4.34 billion by week ended January 06, 2023. The SBP’s reserves fell by $1.233 billion from the level of $5.576 billion a week ago i.e. December 30, 2022.

The present level of the official reserves have fallen below one month import cover. The import bill of the country for the month of December 2022 was recorded at $5.16 billion, according to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

The benchmark foreign exchange reserves of a central bank should be at a level to provide three months import cover.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank witnessed a record high at $20.146 billion by week ended August 27, 2021. Since then the official reserves of the SBP dropped by $16.803 billion.

The total foreign exchange of the country also fell by $1.234 billion to $10.188 billion by week ended January 06, 2023 as compared with $11.422 billion a week ago.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves hit all-time high of $27.228 billion on August 27, 2021. Since then the foreign exchange reserves have declined by $17.04 billion.

The currency experts said that the delay in IMF talks for extended fund facility would pressure the local currency in coming days.