Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani rupee on Thursday edged lower against the US dollar in the interbank market on a negative sentiment because of a delay in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding and depleting foreign exchange reserves.
The local unit closed at 224.37 against the greenback after losing 0.09% compared to Wednesday’s close of 224.16, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed.
Ministry of Finance’s former adviser Dr Khaqan Hassan Najeeb, while speaking to a private TV, cited uncertainty due to the IMF programme and heightened dollar liquidity crunch as a significant reason behind the negative movement of the rupee.
Highlighting that export receipts and remittances have slowed down making the dollar dearer, Dr Najeeb said: “Pakistan is in a market-determined exchange rate system. In this regime trade deficit and market, influencing news makes a lot of impact on currency changes.”
“Something many commentators have ignored is deterioration in Pakistan’s financial account where inflows have dropped compared to last year’s pressure on the balance of payment,” he added.
