Islamabad: The Pakistani rupee dropped Rs0.19 against the US dollar in the interbank market on Monday, taking the total number of losing sessions to nineteen.
At the end of today’s session, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said the local currency depreciated by Rs0.19 or 0.08% against the greenback to close at Rs228.34.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/UORNcYzYwH pic.twitter.com/RqZzoFhLV8
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) January 16, 2023
During the previous week, the PKR depreciated in all five sessions against the US dollar, falling 0.44% to settle at 228.15 in the interbank market.
The fall has continued despite Pakistan reaching major agreements with the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Last week, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to roll over an existing loan of $2 billion and give an additional loan of $1 billion.
The development was reached during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Similarly, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also directed authorities to study “augmenting” the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s investments in Pakistan to reach $10 billion.
According to the Saudi Press Agency, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman also directed the Saudi Development Fund (SDF) to study increasing the amount of the deposit in Pakistan’s central bank to hit $5 billion.
The developments will ease the pressure on Pakistan’s precious forex reserves, which have fallen to the lowest level in nearly nine years.
