Rupee’s free fall continues against US dollar

The downward trend of the Pakistani rupee continued on Thursday as the currency fell by Rs1.33 against the US dollar and traded at Rs187.25 during intraday trade.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the rupee closed to Rs185.92 on Wednesday’s interbank market. The currency has depreciated by Rs5.70 during the past four sessions since Monday. Khurram Shehzad, the CEO of Alpha Beta Core, said,  “The market is responding to uncertainties regarding China’s $2.4 billion debt rollover, the IMF program, and depletion of reserves.”

He disclosed that Pakistan currently does not even have enough reserves for two months, “and the rupee depreciates when investors and traders speculate about the growing gap between demand and supply of the American currency.” It is worth mentioning that the high demand for the greenback due to import payments, in particular oil, foreign exchange reserves are falling and ambiguity in the IMF’s lending program has eroded investor confidence, causing the rupee to fall.