The rout of Pakistani rupee at the hands of US dollar is continued as the greenback added another Rs1.58 to its valued on Wednesday in the interbank trading. According to the data provided by the forex dealers, the US currency kept up its upward march that has been continued for the last two weeks. The greenback traded at Rs233.50, up by Rs1.58 in the interbank trading today by noon. On Tuesday, the exchange rate of the USD was fixed at Rs231.92 towards the close. The rupee has been losing ground against the dollar since Sept 2. It fell by Rs9.2 during the last week to close at Rs228.18. During the last 8 working days, the exchange rate of dollar crept up by Rs14.02. Though the country has received the stalled IMF tranche worth $1.166 billion last month but the market is still not reposing confidence in rupee as has been evident in the declining trend in the value of the local unit.

The other factors which are negatively impacting the Pakistan currency arise out of the financial losses in the wake of recent floods as the country’s exports would be declining and imports would surge in view of rehabilitation of the flood-affected areas. FPCCI President Irfan Iqbal Sheikh also pointed out the other day that the differential between interbank and open market was widened to Rs8 to Rs10 due to speculative trading by the commercial banks, rumours of further rupee depreciation and week implementation of policy tools by the State Bank of Pakistan. He demanded of the SBP to take stricter measures to quell the speculative trading.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP