KARACHI, June 14(ABC): Volatility emerged on Tuesday once again in the foreign exchange market as the Pakistani rupee depreciated nearly Rs1.64 against the US dollar to Rs205.50 in the interbank market during intra-day, reported.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the currency had closed at an all-time low of Rs203.86 per dollar on Monday.
The local currency dipped to an all-time low against the greenback owing to a delay in the revival of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $6 billion loan programme.
However, $2.4 billion in financial assistance from China coupled with the constant assurances by Finance Minister Miftah Ismail regarding economic stability slightly arrested the rupee’s slide.
Today’s rupee decline was in line with the expectations of the market, with dealers anticipating the domestic currency to fall further in case Pakistan fails to convince the IMF about its budget proposals.
A day earlier, the Fund had said that additional measures will be needed to bring Pakistan’s budget for the next fiscal year 2022-23 in line with the key objectives of its IMF programme.
Pakistan had unveiled an Rs9.5 trillion Pakistani ($47 billion) budget for 2022-23 on Friday aimed at tight fiscal consolidation in a bid to convince the IMF to restart much-needed bailout payments.
“Our preliminary estimate is that additional measures will be needed to strengthen the budget and bring it in line with key programme objectives,” the lender’s resident representative in Islamabad Esther Perez Ruiz told Reuters.
