Pakistani rupee continued the losing streak against the US dollar for the 14th session in a row amid political instability and plummeted to 182.64 on Wednesday.
The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the dollar opened at Rs182.34 in the interbank market and closed at Rs182.64 after shedding 30 paisas (-0.16 percent). The rupee has set 13 all-time lowest levels in the interbank market against the greenback during the last 15 sessions and they are 182.64 (March 30), 182.34 (March 29), 182.19 (March 28), 181.78 (March 25), 181.73 (March 22), 181.25 (March 21), 180.57 (March 18), 180.07 (March 17), 179.44 (March 16), 179.22 (March 15), 178.98 (March 14), 178.63 (March 09) and 178.61 (March 08).
The rupee witnessed a trading range of 45 paisas during the session, showing the intra-day high bid of 182.75 and low offer of 182.30. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 183/184 per dollar.
On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of its main competitors, slipped to 98.01 on Wednesday. The dollar shed ground on the back of the better mood in the risk-associated universe and a corrective downside in the US treasury bond yields. The markets have taken an optimistic stance well before the Russia-Ukraine peace talks have yielded any result.
Overall, the rupee shed 86 paisas during the last three days of this week, while the local unit devalued by Rs25.21 during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 and Rs6.19 during the current year 2022.
According to experts, political instability in the country along with higher commodity prices in the global market has badly hit the stability of the rupee in the interbank. They said the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pushed commodity prices to their record historic high level.
Given the rising commodity prices, the soaring import bill has badly hit the current account balance of Pakistan which created a spell of depreciation around the rupee. The country’s overall import bill in February jumped 28.09 percent to $5.89 billion against $4.6 billion in the corresponding month last year. They said that higher dollar’s demand for oil payment may further deteriorate the rupee value. —TLTP
