KARACHI: The Pakistan Rupee (PKR) collapsed against dollar for sixth consecutive sessions on Monday and fell to new record low at Rs181.25 to the dollar.
The rupee lost 68 paisas against the dollar from last Friday’s closing of Rs180.57, which was the previous record low of the rupee against the dollar, in the interbank foreign exchange market.
READ MORE: Dollar continues to make historic high; hits Rs180.57
Currency experts said that external payment pressure had kept pressure on dollar demand.
The massive outflows of the dollar had resulted in over $12 billion current account deficit during first eight months of the current fiscal year.
Further, the external payments, foreign exchange reserves declined and it pushed the rupee to fall sharply.
READ MORE: Dollar climbs new peak PKR 180.07 at interbank closing
The foreign exchange reserves of the country fell by $386 million to $22.283 billion by the week ended March 11, 2022 as against $22.669 billion a week ago. The official reserves of the State Bank fell by $381 million to $15.831 billion by the week ended March 11, 2022 as compared with $16.212 billion a week ago.
READ MORE: Dollar advances to fresh high at Rs179.44
The oil prices in the international markets are highly volatile since the Russia-Ukraine war began on February 24, 2022. The benchmark Brent crude is currently trading at around $108 per barrel (March 18, 2022 at 4:30 PM PST), which fell below $100 per barrel a few days ago, after making $140 per barrel.
The country spent $11.69 billion for the import of petroleum products during the first seven months (July – February) 2021/2022 as compared with $5.64 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year, showing an increase of 107 per cent.
READ MORE: Dollar makes new record high at PKR 179.22
Similarly, dollar demand will rise due to imports related to holy month of Ramzan. The country usually imports palm oil and soybean oil for domestic consumption. The edible oil has also witnessed a sharp increase in prices during past few months.
