Rupee strengthens as dollar continues to shed value

KARACHI: Pakistani Rupee continued to gain value against US Dollar in the interbank market, adding another 22 paisas on Tuesday.

According to a State Bank of Pakistan tweet, the US Dollar opened at Rs158.91 on Tuesday and closed at Rs158.69. PKR has gained Rs2.28 against the greenback during the last two weeks.

“Uptick in remittance inflows ($2 billion per month since the beginning of FY21), a quarterly current account surplus ($792 million) after more than five years (last time a surplus was recorded was in 3QFY15) against a deficit of $1.49 billion in the same period last year coupled with the dollar depreciating against all major currencies (the dollar index is down 10pc since March) are some of the factors that led to appreciation of the rupee,” said Sana Tawfiq, analyst at Arif Habib Ltd.

The deferment of $1.8bn loan repayment to G20 till December 2020 – with a further relaxation anticipated till June 2021 – and expected improvement in inflows with the launch of Roshan Digital Account have also helped stabilise the exchange rate, she added.