KARACHI: The Pak Rupee (PKR) fell by 91 paisas against the dollar on Thursday due to higher demand for import payments.
The rupee ended Rs174.67 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs173.76 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The rupee recorded a fall after the gain during past three straight days.
Currency experts said that the market sentiments were shaky after the statement of the finance advisor related to conditions of IMF loan program. The finance advisor stated that he could not give a certain date for IMF tranche but he claimed all was finalized.
The expert s said that constraints in foreign inflows depressed the value of the local currency.
On October 26, 2021 a pledge was made by the Saudi government to transfer cash amounting $3 billion to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) but the same was not realized so far.
Last week the central bank announced to increase the average Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR), to be maintained during a period of two weeks by scheduled banks, from 5 percent to 6 percent and minimum CRR to be maintained each day from 3 percent to 4 percent.
The experts said that the high import bill pushing up the dollar demand. The import bill registered a growth of 65.15 per cent to $25.06 billion during July – October 2021 as compared with $15.17 billion in the same period of the last fiscal year.
