Currency: Rupee weakens

KARACHI: The rupee ended weaker at 86.39/45 to the dollar, compared with Thursday’s close of 86.30/36, amid higher import payments. Dealers said the rupee is likely to stay range-bound in the coming days because of higher remittances from overseas Pakistanis. According to official data, remittances rose 38.57 per cent to $1.1 billion in the first month of 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with $791.18 million in the same period last year. In the money market, overnight rates were flat at 13.4 per cent, unchanged from the previous day’s close amid tight liquidity in the interbank market. Dealers said there could be unscheduled outflows of 30 billion rupees ($347.5 million) on Monday.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2011.