KARACHI: Pakistan’s rupee maintained its gaining streak against the US dollar in the interbank market as the local currency appreciated Rs2.19 or nearly 1% in the opening hours of trading on Thursday.
The local currency was trading at Rs221.75 per dollar at 9:46am, an appreciation of 0.98 per cent from yesterday’s close of Rs223.94, according to the Forex Association of Pakistan (FAP).
On Wednesday, Pakistan’s rupee appreciated against the US dollar for the ninth successive session, settling at 223.94 after appreciating Rs1.7 or 0.76%.
The rupee, which had fallen close to an all-time low of Rs239.71 on Sept 22, has been recovering since then. It has gained Rs15.77 or 6.58pc in the last nine sessions.
The recent appreciation run is driven by a decline in speculative activity in the currency market, alongside expectation of central bank action against financial institutions involved in currency manipulation.
Moreover, provisional data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released earlier this week showed that the import bill fell by 19.72pc to $5.26bn in September from $6.56bn in the same month last year. On a month-on-month basis, the import bill declined by 13.21pc.
As a result of the decline in imports, the trade deficit in September fell by 30.62pc to $2.88bn this year from $4.15bn over the corresponding month last year.
