KARACHI, June 21(ABC): The Pakistani rupee remained highly volatile and continued its losing streak against the US dollar on Tuesday, losing over Rs2 during intra-day trading despite Finance Minister Miftah Ismail claiming that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme will be revived within the next two days.
According to the sources, the dollar was trading at Rs211.99, after appreciating over Rs2 (as of 10:53am) against Monday’s record high of Rs209.96.
The rupee continues its downtrend, which has also been attributed to the quarter-end payments due to the country’s rising import bill, widening current account deficit and depleting foreign exchange reserves other than the delay in the revival of the IMF programme.
The latest fall since the start of the week in the rupee’s value against the greenback comes after traders resorted to panic buying on reports that some commercial banks had run out of foreign currency.
Businessmen have urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to play its due role in controlling the free-fall of the rupee. However, the central bank seems helpless to control the situation as it cannot supply dollars in the market to support the rupee since its own stock of dollars also stands at a depleted level.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves (held by the SBP) have depleted to a critical level and the country has less than six weeks of import cover remaining. The reserves are currently below $9 billion.
The country is fulfilling the prerequisite conditions to revive the IMF loan programme to avoid default on international payments.
“The currency will continue to fall until Pakistan manages to strike a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” AA Commodities Director Adnan Agar said earlier while speaking.
The analyst was of the view that the investors’ confidence is completely shattered which can only be strengthened by positive development on the IMF front.
