The Pakistani rupee plunged to the lowest level of 179.22 against the US dollar on Tuesday, breaching the earlier all-time low level set just 24 hours ago. The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the dollar opened at Rs178.98 in the interbank market and closed at Rs179.22, shedding 24 paisas (-o.13 percent). Earlier, the lowest level of the rupee was Rs178.98, which was witnessed on Monday last. Before this, the rupee set two all-time lowest levels of 178.61 and 178.63 against the US dollar during the last week. All this is happening at a time when the dollar is struggling to find demand globally as markets assess the latest Russia-Ukraine headlines and the implications of surging coronavirus cases in China. The rupee witnessed a trading range of 27 paisas during the session, showing the intra-day high bid of 179.25 and low offer of 179.10. During the intra-day trading, the dollar hit the Rs179.25 level. Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 179.50/180.50 per dollar against 179/180 per dollar during the last session. On the other hand, the US Dollar Index, which gauges the greenback against a basket of its main competitors, gave away part of the recent advance and slipped back to the 98.60 neighbourhood for the second day in a row on Tuesday. The index came under some mild downside pressure at the beginning of the week following two consecutive daily gains. The daily pullback in the greenback also came pari passu with the so far corrective move in US Treasury bond yields, as the recent selloff in cash markets around the world seems to be taking a breather on Tuesday. Overall, the rupee shed 71 paisas against the American currency during the last two days, while the local unit devalued by Rs21.79 during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 and Rs2.77 during the current year 2022. According to experts, political instability in the country along with higher commodity prices in the global market has badly hit the stability of the rupee in the interbank. They said the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has pushed commodity prices to their record historic high level. Given the rising commodity prices, the soaring import bill has badly hit the current account balance of Pakistan which created a spell of depreciation around the rupee. They said that higher dollar’s demand for oil payment may further deteriorate the rupee value.