In line with the prevailing trend during the week, the rupee maintained the momentum for the seventh consecutive session on Saturday — an additional working day for the central bank — due to healthy supplies and remittances from overseas.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the rupee closed at Rs181.55 with a meagre gain of 0.02% against the greenback compared to a close of Rs181.58 on Friday.
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The rupee has maintained a downward trend for the last 11 months. It has lost 19.22% (or Rs29.28) to date, compared to the record high of Rs152.27 recorded in May 2021.
With a fresh rise of 0.02%, the Pakistani rupee has depreciated by 15.24% (or Rs24.01) since the start of the current fiscal year on July 1, 2021, data released by the central bank revealed.
Financial pundit Khurram Schehzad believe that the rupee’s recovery streak for the seventh consecutive session was due to healthy dollar supplies and positive sentiments about the outlook for the country.
Moreover, dollar demand from importers has not been too high in the last few days as political uncertainty eased, and the central bank hiked interest rates and other measures to cut imports and fall inflation.
The local unit continued to rise during the week on the back of improvement in the supply of the greenback as the rise in remittances for Ramadan lent support to the domestic currency.
Analysts said that the rupee will stay stable in the coming days. There will be slight fluctuations depending on inflow and outflows, which is normal and the local unit should be steady.
During the week, the market also remained optimistic that the new government would start talks with International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revive the loan package, which could provide more stability to the currency market.
