The Pakistani rupee recorded a marginal fall against the US dollar, depreciating 0.1% during the early hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Monday.
The rupee was down Re0.3 against the US dollar in the interbank market at 9:50 a.m., with the price quoted at 283.50.
The rupee dropped 0.53% last week against the US dollar, ending the week at 283.2 in the interbank market. Two days of recovery after a sizable decrease helped to reduce losses, but the fundamental causes for the rupee’s worse position remained.
The currency market did not react warmly due to a programme that has stalled with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and indications that the staff-level agreement is still a ways off.
Islamabad is trying to restart the IMF’s $1 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Additional contributions from other international creditors will start to flow after the IMF loan is released.
In a significant milestone, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar stated on Sunday that “friendly” nations should fulfill their promises to Pakistan in order to finalise the deal with the IMF and recover the economy.
Additionally, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday declared that the Cash Margin Requirement (CMR) on imports of goods will be removed.
According to analysts, the decision was made to restart the IMF programme and receive the $1.2 billion loan tranche in order to increase the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves, which were $4.6 billion at the time.
The US dollar was strong across the board on Monday as investors assessed the steps taken by authorities and regulators to allay concerns about the global banking system.
