After going down against the mighty US dollar, the Pakistani rupee on Wednesday staged a turnaround and gained Rs1.01 in early business in the interbank market. According to the information extracted from the forex dealers, the Pakistani rupee gained Rs1.01 in its value against the greenback and was currently being traded at Rs261.50.

On Tuesday, Pakistani rupee’s five-session appreciation run came to an end as the currency settled with a decline of 0.24% against the US dollar in the inter-bank market. As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the currency closed at 262.51 against the US dollar, a fall of 63 paisas.

The last cycle of currency devaluation pushed Pakistan’s real effective exchange rate (REER) to 92.8 in January 2023 from 96.2 a month earlier, data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed. The decline in the REER — an index of the price of a basket of goods in one country relative to the price of the same basket in that country's major trading partners — is driven by the rupee’s massive depreciation against the US dollar during the month of January.

Amid other developments, the National Assembly on Monday passed the Finance (Supplementary) Bill, 2023, proposing additional taxes and duties of Rs170 billion to meet the understanding reached with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for its Extended Fund Facility. In his winding-up speech, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said his economic team held talks with the IMF to revive the programme, during which it agreed to take some tough decisions for streamlining the deteriorating condition of the economy.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP