MM News

KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee has seen a slight decrease against the US dollar on the opening day of business week in the interbank market on Monday.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the local currency closed at Rs207.94 against the US dollar, after losing 0.22% compared to its session’s close of Rs207.48.

The rupee has maintained a downward trend for the last 13 months. It has lost 36.56% (or Rs55.67) to date, compared to the record high of Rs152.27 recorded in May 2021.

Since the beginning of this fiscal year to date, the rupee has collectively dropped by a massive 31.99% (or Rs50.4) compared to the previous fiscal year’s close at Rs157.54.

Pakistan is facing a financial crisis with reserves depleting fast amid the stalled $6 billion IMF program. The country is also struggling with a widening current account deficit, weighed down by higher imports, and surging inflation.

Since government has fulfilled major conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the analysts are hopeful about the strength of the rupee if the government is able to secure a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next week.

Last week, the government slapped a super tax on the big industrial sector as well as burdened the salaried class by revising tax rate on different slabs of personal tax to generate an additional Rs400 billion under the demand of IMF to raise tax revenue target to Rs7,400 billion for the next fiscal against Rs7,000 billion, it proposed at the time of presentation of the budget on June 10, 2022.

Analysts expected that the revival of the IMF program would have a positive impact on the rupee, which remained a victim of negative sentiments after the international lender remained reluctant to revive the program on the violation of agreed conditions by the country.