KARACHI: The Pak Rupee gained 57 paisas against dollar on Thursday on expectation of IMF loan release for Pakistan.
The rupee ended Rs167.19 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs167.76 in interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the reports of IMF likely to disburse around $1.4 billion to Pakistan next week helped the rupee to gain.
The experts said that the rupee likely to gain further 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.
