The Pakistani rupee recorded another appreciation in its value against the US dollar in the interbank market on Friday despite a health y drop in the country’s forex reserves. According to the figures made available by the forex traders, the local currency went up by 38 paisas against the greenback and was currently being traded at Rs279.60. On Thursday, the Pakistan had registered back-to-back gains against the US dollar, appreciating 0.04% in the interbank market, settling for the day at Rs279.98. The latest rupee appreciation came as Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves, held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), reached $8,027.4 million, down 1.6% week-on-week. As of the week ended January 12, 2024, the SBP’s foreign currency reserves stood at $8,027.4 million, marking a $127 million decline compared to the previous week’s total of $8,154.8 million.

The central bank cited debt repayments as the reason for the decrease in reserves. Total liquid foreign currency reserves of the country, inclusive of the reserves held by commercial banks, amounted to $13,145.1 million. Of these, the commercial banks had net reserves of $5,117.7 million. The SBP’s reserves cumulatively rose $1.32 billion in the prior two weeks, which reflected a rebound from almost six-month low of $6.9 billion hit on December 15, 2023. The reserves grew on the back of official inflows coming from multilateral creditors. This helped the country to meet the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) end-December quarterly target of net foreign assets, according to industry sources and local research houses.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)