Pakistani rupee (PKR) fell to a historic low in July in the open market as it was traded at Rs250 against the US dollar, witnessing an increase up to Rs34 this month.
Yesterday, the PKR was traded at the highest Rs250 against the US dollar before its slight recovery to Rs247 on Friday.
PKR witnessed small gains in the interbank after a consistent decline in the last two weeks. As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data, PKR closed at Rs239.37 in the interbank on Friday and witnessed an increase of Rs0.57 – 0.24 per cent as compared to Thursday.
Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/7mgh1WaWW6 pic.twitter.com/YkprdgF19D
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) July 29, 2022
Financial experts suggested the federal government take immediate steps to stop the smuggling of dollars and continue trade with Afghanistan through PKR.
In July, the local currency appreciated to Rs204.56 in the first week, recovering from 211.93 on June 22, however, it saw depreciation in consecutive sessions. It witnessed a slight appreciation after the staff-level agreement between Pakistan and International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 15.
Later, the government failed to stop the downward spiral in consecutive sessions so far.
A sharp drop in the rupee was seen after the reporting of a five-month high current account deficit (CAD) at $2.3 billion for the month of June by the government.
The CAD stood at the second historical high of $17.40 billion in the fiscal year which ended June 30, 2022, and was financed through the foreign exchange reserves.
The development came after Finance Miftah Ismail vowed that the country will see PKR stability in the coming weeks.