The Pakistani rupee made a comeback on Monday by Rs 2.62 to Rs 237.03 against the US dollar in intraday trade in the interbank market, increasing for the first time during the last month and a half.
According to the sources, this recovery comes days after the news of previous finance minister Ishaq Dar – recognized for artificially controlling the rupee – returning to the country, after being in self-exile for five years, was reported.
Dar is to become the next finance minister as Miftah Ismail resigned from the post a day earlier.
The rupee resisted a fresh fall beyond an all-time low of Rs 239.94 last week.
Before that it had lost 12% (or Rs 25) of its value in 15 consecutive working days between August 2 and September 22, 2022, touching Rs 229.71 against the US dollar.
Read more: Rupee nosedives to 225 against dollar due to renewed political volatility
The rupee has witnessed the latest recovery against dollar after a nine-month high recovery in international oil to below $80 per barrel against $116 per barrel in June 2022. Pakistan relies heavily on imported energy. The share of energy in $84 billion imports in FY22 stood at 25%.
Moreover, the Pakistani currency has also recovered on expected inflows of a couple of billion dollars in the weeks and months to come from multilateral creditors to support Pakistan’s fight against flood devastation.
In this regard, previous finance minister Miftah Ismail also made it clear that Pakistan is not going to default on its global bonds repayment in December 2022.
Additionally, the country has sought to reschedule its foreign debt costing $10 billion from the Paris club, which has nothing to do with Pakistan’s commercial loans and loan worth $1 billion to be repaid to global bond investors on December 5, 2022.
In the open market, rupee gained 50 paisas for buying and selling against dollar, closing at 242 and 244.40, respectively.
Against Euro, rupees gained 4 rupees for both buying and selling, closing at 235 and 237.35 correspondingly.
Similarly, against UAE Dirham, the PKR increased 10 paisas for both buying and selling, closing at 65.90 and 66.55, correspondingly. The PKR gained 10 paisas, against Saudi Riyal, for both buying and selling, closing at 64.25 and 64.90, respectively.
