Against USD: Pakistan's rupee largely stable, closes at 178.05 in inter-bank market

Pakistan's rupee continued to remain largely stable against the US dollar, closing down one paisa in the inter-bank market on Tuesday.

As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the PKR closed at 178.05 against the USD after a day-on-day depreciation of 1 paisa or 0.01%. This is still the weakest closing for the rupee against the US dollar in the inter-bank market.

On Monday, the PKR closed at 178.04 against the USD.

Cumulatively, the rupee has depreciated over 11% CYTD and 13% on a FYTD basis against the US dollar.

The relative stability comes after Pakistan's current account deficit widened slightly to $1.91 billion in November 2021, from $1.76 billion in October 2021, showed data released on Monday, as imports outstripped strong exports and remittances.

Against USD: Pakistan's rupee stable amid SBP measures to curb speculation

However, the import number of $6.4 billion is $1.5 billion lower than the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) figure of $7.9 billion, which is probably the biggest gap seen in any month between SBP and PBS numbers.

“This indicates that payment of some purchased goods was not made in the same month,” commented Fahad Rauf, Head of Research at Ismail Iqbal Securities Limited.

July-Nov: C/A deficit yawns to $7.1bn

Meanwhile, other market experts termed the deficit a negative but stressed that it is lower than expectations. “The current account deficit is reportedly less than the astronomical expectations,” commented A A H Soomro.

“The difference is due to recording methodology of the import data reported by SBP and PBS,” he added.

Recently, the central bank has taken measures to arrest deterioration in the rupee including steps to curb speculation in the currency market. It has also raised the key interest rate by 275 basis points since September as a counter to inflation, a part of which the government blames on prices of international commodities.

Inter-bank market rates for dollar on Tuesday

BID Rs 178

OFFER Rs 178.10

Open-market movement

In the open market, the PKR remained unchanged for both buying and selling against USD, closing at 179 and 180, respectively.

Against Euro, the PKR lost 1 rupee for buying and 1.50 rupees for selling, closing at 199 and 201, respectively.

Against UAE Dirham, the PKR lost 90 paisas for both buying and selling, closing at 49.90 and 50.30, respectively.

Against Saudi Riyal, the PKR remained unchanged for both buying and selling, closing at 47 and 47.40, respectively.

Open-market rates for dollar on Tuesday

BID Rs 179

OFFER Rs 180