Rupee recovers to 158 in intra-bank market

KARACHI: Pakistani rupee maintained uptrend on the first working day of the new fiscal year 2019-20 on Tuesday following an increase in the supply of dollars in the economy.

The currency improved Rs2 to Rs158 to the US dollar in intra-day trade in the inter-bank market.

Cumulatively, the rupee has strengthened Rs6 against the greenback in the two days.

The improvement is seen following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s statement on Sunday ensuring that stability would return in rupee against the dollar from here onward.

"The talks that the rupee would drop to Rs180 and Rs200 are baseless," Khan said while talking to senior journalists and anchor person.

Rupee weakens against dollar

He said the last two difficult months of May and June 2019 came to the end for the economy.

He said this in backdrop of his two months old statement in which he had declared the months of May and June as the last two difficult months for the economy.

To recall, the central bank let the rupee depreciated 32 per cent to Rs160.05 in the preceding fiscal year ended Sunday, June 30, 2019.

Experts said the recovery is seen following receipt of first tranche of $500 million from Qatar on Saturday. Earlier, Doha has announced an economic assistance package worth total $3 billion last week.

Besides, the expected approval of $6 billion long-term loan program for Pakistan by the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) executive board on Wednesday also improved sentiment and fundamentals for the rupee.

The approval is expected to be followed by first tranche of $1 billion soon.

Moreover, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia also started supply of petroleum oil products on defer payment worth $275 per month to Islamabad from July 1, 2019.