KARACHI: The Pak Rupee recovered 14 paisas against dollar on Wednesday after witnessing significant decline a day earlier.
The rupee closed at Rs167.76 to the dollar from previous day’s closing of Rs167.90 in interbank foreign exchange market.
The local unit fell significantly a day earlier and lost 91 paisas against the greenback.
Currency experts said that the rupee was under massive pressure due to outflow of hot money during the past couple of month.
The outbreak of coronavirus jolted the financial markets across the globe, which also forced the investors to consolidate their funds.
A huge amount was also taken out by foreign investors from domestic debt market, which resulted pressure the local currency.
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.
