What appears to be a temporary relief, the Pakistani rupee after session-after-session drubbing against the US dollar gained some ground in interbank market on Wednesday. According to the information collected from the forex dealers, the local currency appreciated by 30 paisas against the greenback and was currently being trading at Rs288.22 On Tuesday, the Pakistani rupee had settled at Rs288.52, down by 60 paisas against the US dollar in the interbank business. The local currency had lost nearly 4.4% or Rs12.62 against the US dollar in the last nine trading sessions.

Meanwhile, in a move to attract dollars into the country, the State Bank of Pakistan has updated its instructions for foreign exchange companies for importing US dollars, allowing them to import cash dollars against the value of their export consignments of permissible foreign currencies within five working days through reputed cargo or security companies. The central bank has updated these terms by adding a paragraph — titled ‘Import of Cash US Dollars through Cargo/Security Comp­anies’ — to Chapter 5 of the Exchange Companies Manual.

It said that this arrangement would initially be in place until December 31, 2023, and would be subject to the condition that total cash dollars imported by an exchange company during this period shall not exceed 50 percent of the value of its export consignments. It said the exchange companies should include such an arrangement in their deal with the overseas entity. The system-generated deal ticket shall also include particulars of the amount to be imported as cash dollars, if any, out of the total export consignment.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)