KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee gained 30 paisas to reach Rs214.65 against the dollar on Friday, amid prevailing positive sentiments, as the government is likely to secure major loan agreements, dealers said.
The local unit shed 30 paisas to close at Rs214.65 to the dollar from Thursday’s closing of Rs213.95 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
Currency experts said that the investors’ confidence got a boost from the likely successful completion of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and financial support from Saudi Arabia besides swelling foreign exchange reserves.
Pakistan is reported to meet all prior conditions of the IMF for the disbursement of $1.17 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme. Additionally, Saudi Arabia is also reported to renew its $3 billion.
The kingdom will also provide a $100 million loan for oil per month, which will be received from Saudi Arabia in 10 months on deferred payments of $1 billion.
As the rupee began to batter the greenback in the interbank market, the exporters also opted to bring their receipts which they were holding for a better yield, resulting in dollar surplus in the country.
The country’s current account deficit has also narrowed during July on the back of lower import bill. The trade deficit came in at $2.64 billion in July, down 47 per cent or $2.32 billion on a month-on-month basis.
After a continuous decline during the recent past, the foreign exchange reserves of the country witnessed an increase as the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) witnessed a growth of $67 million, to reach $7.9 billion during the week ended August 12, compared with $7.83 billion on August 5.
The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13.61 billion. The net foreign reserves held by commercial banks amounted to $5.72 billion.
The country’s current account deficit rose 531 per cent to over $17 billion during the fiscal year 2022 due to massive increase in goods import bill. Overall, the current account deficit was $17.4 billion during the fiscal year 2022, compared with $2.8 billion in the fiscal year 2021, depicting an increase of $14.6 billion.
The local currency remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The rupee lost Rs9.8 or 4.78 per cent from Rs204.85 to dollar on June 30, 2022 to the current level of Rs214.65.
At the open market, the buying and selling of the dollar was recorded at Rs215.5 and Rs218.5 at 5:30pm PST.
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