KARACHI: The fall in the rupee value against dollar continued for the third straight day on Monday as oil prices climbed up in the international market.
The rupee came down by 36 paisas against the dollar to close at Rs177.43 on February 28, 2022, as compared with last Friday’s Rs177.11 in the interbank foreign exchange market.
The local currency lost Rs1.32 against the dollar in the last three trading sessions.
The dealers said that the rupee remained under pressure due to rising oil prices in the international markets, especially after Russia launched offensives on Ukrainian soil.
The benchmark Brent crude surged by over five per cent to $103 per barrel on Monday 3:25pm PST.
Pakistan is the net importer of petroleum products, the impact is directly seen on the rupee value.
The import bill of petroleum group recorded an increase of 107 per cent to $11.7 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year, as compared with $5.64 billion in the corresponding months of the last fiscal year.
Besides, the impact of high oil prices and the ballooning current account deficit also pressured the rupee during the day.
The country’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) surged to its highest ever monthly deficit of $2.6 billion in January 2022 ($1.9 billion in December 2021) taking CAD of $11.6 billion during the first seven months of the current fiscal year.
The experts said that the scheduled repayments of the government for foreign debt had also kept the rupee under pressure.
The liquid foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan declined by $264 million to $23.226 billion by the week ended February 18, 2022.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country were $23.49 billion by the week ended February 11, 2022. The official reserves of the State Bank fell by $289 million to $16.807 billion by the week ended February 18, 2022 as compared with $17.096 billion a week ago.
The rupee remained under pressure since the start of the current fiscal year. The local unit recorded a decline of Rs19.93 or 12.62 per cent from Rs157.54 on June 30, 2021 to the present level of Rs177.47. 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 Rs177.2 and Rs178.8 at 4:00pm PST.
