Rupee gains against USD after 45 days of devaluation

The Pakistani rupee bounced back on Monday by Rs2.62 to Rs237.03 against the US dollar in intraday trade in the interbank market, appreciating for the first time in the past month and a half.

The recovery comes days after the news of former finance minister Ishaq Dar - known for artificially controlling the rupee - returning to the country, after being in self-exile for five years, was reported.

Dar is set to become the next finance minister as Miftah Ismail stepped down from the post a day earlier.

The rupee successfully resisted fresh fall beyond an all-time low of Rs239.94 last week.

Prior to that it lost 12% (or Rs25) of its value in 15 consecutive working days between August 2 and September 22, 2022, reaching Rs229.71 against the US dollar.

Read Miftah resigns, Dar to take helm of economy

The rupee has seen the latest recovery following a nine-month high recovery in international oil to below $80 per barrel compared to $116 per barrel in June 2022.

Pakistan heavily relies on imported energy. The share of energy in $84 billion imports in FY22 stood at 25%.

The rupee has also regained on expected inflows of a couple of billion dollars in the weeks and months to come from multilateral creditors to help Pakistan fight against flood devastation.

Moreover, former finance minister Miftah Ismail also made it clear that Pakistan is not going to default on its global bonds repayment in December 2022.

Besides, the country has sought to reschedule it's foreign debt worth $10 billion from the Paris club, which has nothing to do with Pakistan's commercial loans and loan worth $1 billion to be repaid to global bond investors on December 5, 2022.