KARACHI: The dollar rebounded against the rupee by 47 paisas on Friday owing to weekly demand and high oil prices.

The exchange rate ended at Rs175.86 to the dollar from the previous day’s closing of Rs175.39 in the interbank foreign exchange market.

The rupee made gains during the past two trading sessions owing to ease in the Russia-Ukraine tensions.

The dealers said that the rupee was under pressure due to weekly dollar demand for import payment. The market will remain close for two weekly holidays.

Further, they said that the escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine were keeping the international oil prices higher. The benchmark Brent crude is still hovering around above $90 in the international markets.

Pakistan is dependent on the import of petroleum products to meet the domestic requirements.

The oil bill of the country surged 107 per cent to $11.7 billion during the first seven months (July–January) of the current fiscal year, as compared with $5.64 billion during the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.

The dealers said that ease in foreign exchange reserves also impacted the rupee value.

The liquid foreign exchange reserves of the country slipped by $231 million to $23.49 billion by the week ended February 11, 2022, as compared with $23.721 billion a week ago. Similarly, the official reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by $241 million to $17.096 billion by the week ended February 11, 2022, as compared with $17.337 billion a week ago.

The rupee remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The local unit recorded a decline of Rs18.32 of 11.63 per cent from Rs157.54 on June 30, 2021 to the present level of Rs175.86.

The local currency fell to the record low at Rs178.24 against the dollar on December 29, 2021.

At the open market, the buying and selling of the dollar was recorded at Rs175.9 and Rs177.5 at 4:00pm PST.