Islamabad: The Pakistani rupee’s winless streak against the US dollar continued on Wednesday as the local currency further depreciated by Rs1.17 in the interbank market.
At the end of Wednesday’s session, the local currency lost 0.53% against the greenback, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/Bxnqj6yBLq pic.twitter.com/JvzpjfUM1E
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) October 19, 2022
The fall in the rupee’s value against the US dollar started after the thirteen-session-winning streak of the local currency ended last week.
Rupee’s 13 sessions winning streak ends against US dollar
Since Dar’s arrival at the end of last month, the PKR went on a roll and appreciated for thirteen consecutive sessions, jumping from Rs239.71 on September 22 to Rs217.73 on October 11 against the USD.
Many market viewers attribute the weakness in the local currency to the dwindling forex reserves and the absence of confirmations of foreign inflows.
The forex reserves of Pakistan took a hit and dropped by a massive $302.9 million as of October 7 to reach $7.596 billion – the lowest level of forex reserves since July 2019. During the week that ended on October 7, the net SBP-held reserves fell to $7.59 billion from $7.89 billion recorded on September 30.
Similarly, the net reserves held by the commercial banks also dropped by $39 million to reach $5.64 billion from $5.68 billion.
Cumulatively, the total foreign exchange reserves witnessed a fall of $342 million to reach $13.24 billion from $13.58 billion during the period under review.
