On Wednesday, the Pakistani rupee lost Rs 2 against the US dollar on the interbank market. This is because the greenback is getting stronger around the world, and the dollar index, which compares the greenback to six major peers, just hit a new 20-year high.
The rupee ended the day at Rs223.42, which was Rs2 less than where it ended the day before, at Rs221.42. Saad bin Naseer, who is in charge of the financial data and analytics site Mettis Global, said that the dollar had been getting stronger around the world for weeks, and that this was also happening in Pakistan’s currency market.
He said that the UAE government’s rule that travellers from Pakistan must carry 5,000 Dirhams in cash had also made more people want to buy dollars. He estimated that this rule alone had increased demand on the open market by $5 million per day.
“This is why the dollar costs about Rs10 more on the open market,” Naseer said. Naseer said that the recent floods had hurt the country’s crops and plantations. This meant that the government had to import vegetables, which increased the demand for the dollar and put pressure on the country’s trade deficit.
Naseer expressed hope that Pakistan would soon receive the $4 billion promised by friendly countries. This would help keep the value of the rupee stable.
