As the ongoing political crisis continues, the rupee has been in freefall as it further depreciated against the dollar, standing at Rs103 on Monday, Express News reported.
Before Monday, the rupee stood at 102 to a dollar, but rose soon after trading began.
Up until two months ago, the rupee had appreciated considerably, and was stable at 98.1/98.3 against the dollar, buoyed by remittances and $1.5 billion 'gift' from Saudi Arabia in the from of foreign exchange.
But heavy debt repayments to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had dented the central bank’s foreign currency reserves, which declined significantly, putting pressure on the rupee.
The market has also taken a hit because of the current political turmoil. The benchmark Karachi Stock Exchange also saw a drop of over 352 points by the end of trading on Monday, a change of 1.22%.
COMMENTS (13)
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@Humza: And what has PMLN done for the economy? The only achievements they've had so far are rigging the elections and lying to the IMF.
Rupee is falling with Imran Khan's political graph.
Hey hurray !!! Daily we are having concert in Islamabad and its free .... No ticket, the only cost is 700 billion rupee which is being bear by economy Lets celebrate mehndi of Captain. Keep it up Imran Khan !!! you are going in the right direction to put back Pakistan in to the dark ages. We don't need progress, we need load shedding, inflation, joblessness, weak rupee ....
@JEJ: The same way Imran and his magic wand ended corruption in KPK in 90 days? Face it, Imran Khan has surrounded himself by the most corrupt politicians and he will stand at nothing to become PM = he does't care about anything but his ego. He has been exposed as the worst possible man to lead Pakistan. He is celebrating the fall of the rupee and the decline in the economy since he started his darna. It shows you can be good at charity but not good for politics. He should leave and stay in the container with Tahirul Qadri.
Once Imran Khan becomes PM, the Rupee will shoot up 90pc in just 9 days.
As I write this the exchange rates of ours and our neighbours is as follows: Pakistani Rupee 103.5 Indian Rupee 60.5 Bangladeshi Taka 76.8 At the time of Independence in 1947 all the currencies were at par and indeed in 1971 when Bangladesh became Independent it's Taka was at par with our Rupee. Today it is a different story. The Indian Rupee and Taka are 72% and 27% stronger respectively. It proves that their economy is much stronger and if this trend continues we will soon become bankrupt. It is time that we abandon our obsession of spending on our military and instead focus on education, health and infrastructure. If we had done from the beginning we would have been miles ahead of our neighbours. We are spending money we don't have. RIP Pakistan.
@ Ex-PMLN, now combine what you said and what i said, it massively compounds the problem! Ex-ECP member exposition of rigging accelerates momentum of protest movement, people now waking up. NOT good for investors, investors need stability, esp in a massively overheated pk stock market.
@Ex-PMLN I am not a PMLN member but in this case we should remember that the Ex-ECP member just claimed but he never give evidence so far. Claiming without evidence is not a justice at all. You cannot jump to the conclusions like these . Tomorrow let us suppose someone from the Pakistani Army will come forward and will claim that There is massive corruption in the whole of the institute then you believe his claim and will announce that Pak Army have no right to exist anymore?
Pakistan does not need external enemies in the presence of Imran Khan and Qadri. Both are playing the worst role to destroy country's economy.
Or politicians have started taking their money to foreign reserves. This must be a reason ?
Sorry to correct you. The Rupee fell after an EX-ECP member exposed all the rigging. What about the circular debt? Have you finished it again? The price hikes you promised to IMF? The GDP was 3.3 or 4.1 as report by you to IMF?
freefall because of recently announced rigging claims from an insider in the ECP. Very credible claims, with serious cosequences.