MM News

KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee on Friday appreciated against the US dollar in the interbank market despite the delay in the deal with the IMF to revive its bailout program.

As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the currency closed at 269.28 against the US dollar, an increase of Rs1.23. The currency has depreciated by 23.2% during the ongoing fiscal year against the greenback.

Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/iQLYimEqT2 pic.twitter.com/2Y0UGQVVj5

— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) February 10, 2023

The rupee had maintained an upward momentum against the US dollar on Thursday, closing at 270.51 against the US dollar, an appreciation of Rs2.82 or 1.04%.

After a week of discussions, the IMF and Pakistani authorities have not been able to come to a staff-level agreement on the economic front.

As Pakistan moves to carry out the earlier initiatives, the IMF stated that virtual conversations will continue to settle the specifics of policy execution. This suggests that it may take some time until an agreement to restart the program through a staff-level agreement is reached.

Meanwhile, the country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves further fell by $202 million during the last week.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s weekly report issued on Thursday, total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $8.54 billion as of February 3, 2023, compared to $8.74 billion as of Jan 27, 2023.