KARACHI: The free fall in rupee value continued on Tuesday as the dollar hit new high at Rs176.79 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The Pak Rupee (PKR) lost 31 paisas against the dollar to end at Rs176.79 from the previous day’s closing of Rs176.48 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The rupee previously fell to the record low at Rs176.77 on December 3, 2021.
Currency experts said that dollar demand remained high and offset the impact of Saudi fund support.
The Saudi Development Fund (SDF) placed an amount of $3 billion with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on December 04, 2021. The market was expecting some gain in rupee value following the fund transfers. However, large import bill remained big challenge for the rupee stability.
According to the official data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) released a day earlier, showed the import bill of the country surged by 69.17 per cent to $33 billion during first five months (July – November) 2021/2022 as compared with $19.47 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
