Daily Times

Pakistani rupee remained on the downward slide against the US dollar for the second consecutive day and depreciated to 184.44 on Tuesday.

The State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement that the rupee opened at 182.54 against the US dollar in the interbank market and closed at 184.44 after shedding Rs1.9 (-1.03 percent). Within the open market, the rupee was traded at 184.30/185.80 per dollar against 182.30/183.50 a day earlier.

The rupee broke its nine-week losing streak against the US dollar last week and gained Rs3.13 (1.69 percent) by recovering from 184.68 to Rs181.55. However, during the first two days of this week, the rupee has shed Rs2.89 against the US dollar and slipped back to 184.44. Overall, the rupee devalued by Rs27.01 against the US dollar during the ongoing fiscal year 2021-22 and Rs7.99 during the current year 2022.

According to experts, widening fiscal and trade deficits as well as economic challenges have always been behind a strong spell of depreciation. They said that rising crude oil and commodities prices are further adding to the woes by multiplying import bills, which is further weighing on the rupee.

Meanwhile, the workers’ remittances received by Pakistan hit an all-time high of $2.8 billion in March, extending support to foreign exchange reserves and rupee against the US dollar. Cumulatively, the remittances have risen to $23 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year 2021-22, up by 7.1 percent over the same period of previous year.

However, the foreign exchange reserves of the country dropped for the ninth straight week by $0.45 billion (2.57 percent) on a week-on-week basis to reach $17.03 billion. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank decreased to $10,849.6 million, while reserves held by commercial banks increased to $6,178.5 million.