The Pakistani rupee depreciated by 56 paise to Rs 225.50 against the US dollar during interbank trading on Monday despite the influx of funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) due to the economic crisis.
The rupee depreciated by 23 paise against the greenback on Friday, closing at Rs 224.94 from a traded value of Rs 224.71 on Thursday in the interbank market.
Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has reiterated his determination to maintain control over the US currency despite the wide gap between open market and interbank trading.
Open market
The Pakistani rupee remained steady at Rs 234 to one US dollar in the open market, with a difference of Rs 10 between the two markets.
However, the business community said that hardly any currency is available at the official exchange rate.
Instead, the US dollar was being sold at Rs 255 in the black market.
Decrease of $15 million in foreign exchange reserves
Foreign exchange reserves fell by another $15 million to a ‘dangerous level’ of $6.7 billion, the State Bank said in a statement on Thursday.
It should be noted that this is the lowest level of State Bank reserves since January 2019.
According to State Bank data, the country had total liquid foreign reserves of $12.57 billion as of December 9, 2022. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks reached $5.87 billion.
“SBP’s reserves recorded no major change during the week ended December 9, 2022 and closed at $6.7 billion,” the central bank said.
