Islamabad: The Pakistani rupee dropped Rs0.24 against the US dollar in the interbank market on Thursday, taking the total number of losing sessions to twenty-two.
At the end of today’s session, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said that the local currency depreciated by Rs0.24 or 0.10% against the greenback to close at Rs229.14.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/0VR3B72J5n pic.twitter.com/FQmN0Xw6cx
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) January 19, 2023
Meanwhile, a mixed trend was observed at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX). The benchmark KSE-100 index gained 40.49 points or 0.1% to close at 38,831.58.
A huge sigh of relief as the current account deficit of Pakistan (CAD) dropped by nearly 60% in the first half (July – December) of the current fiscal year (FY23).
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), during the period under review, the current account recorded a deficit of $3.667 billion in FY23 compared to $9.09 billion in FY22, showing a decline of $5.42 billion.
Market analysts have said that the federal government’s measures to curtail the rising import have put a positive impact as the current account is continually presenting an improved picture.
Earlier this month, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported that a massive cut was observed in imports in line with the steps taken by the incumbent government to ease the pressure on import bills during the first six months of FY23. Imports amounted to $31.382 billion during the period, compared to the $40.463 billion that had been recorded during the same period last year.
On a month-on-month basis, however, the current account deficit rose slightly in December to $0.4 billion compared to $0.25 billion recorded in November.
The sharp trend of decline in the current account deficit has been observed despite a fall in remittances inflows, which declined by 11.1% in the first half of FY23 to amount to $14.052 billion compared to $15.807 billion recorded in the same period last year.
