Daily Times

Rupee continues depreciating against the US dollar on Thursday, setting the fifth all-time low of 177.61 in December so far.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, the dollar opened at Rs176.43 in the interbank market and closed at Rs177.61, shedding 18 paisas (-o.10 percent). Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 179/180.20 per dollar.

Earlier during this December, the dollar hit the then highest ever levels of Rs177.43 on December 8, Rs176.79 on December 7, Rs176.77 on December 3 and Rs176.42 on December 02. Overall, the local currency shed 84 paisas against the greenback during the last four days. The rupee’s depreciation during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 has been Rs20.19 and Rs17.46 in the current year 2021.

The experts said that the free fall of the rupee is due to conditionalities of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They said that the government should clarify the situation and take market participants into confidence in order to end the prevailing uncertainty as the given situation is only benefiting the speculators. They said that amid the ongoing macroeconomic conditions, the rupee should not have crossed the 165 mark against the dollar.

They said the rupee is under the pressure of soaring import bill which needs to be curtailed immediately as the depleting foreign exchange reserves will hardly cover the bill for around three months if it continues to report around the same figures.

However, the government is now looking for ways to make a substantial decline in the import bill. In this connection, Advisor to the PM on Finance Shaukat Tarin advised the concerned authorities to take effective policy measures to reduce unnecessary imports of luxury items.