Currency: Rupee falls sharply against dollar
rupee weakened to 86.60/66 to the dollar from Friday’s close of 86.25/30.
KARACHI:
The rupee fell sharply on Thursday amid strong dollar demand as the interbank market reopened after public holidays. The rupee weakened to 86.60/66 to the dollar from Friday’s close of 86.25/30. “There were payments worth at least $100 million today (Thursday) and dollar inflows were soft due to the holidays,” said a dealer at a foreign bank. Looking ahead, dealers said the local unit could face further downward pressure, despite healthy remittances from Pakistanis living abroad, thanks to a widening current account deficit. The current account deficit surged to a provisional $908 million in September, compared with a deficit of $201 million in August. The deficit for the July-September quarter was a provisional $1.21 billion, compared with $597 million in the same period last year, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2011.
The rupee fell sharply on Thursday amid strong dollar demand as the interbank market reopened after public holidays. The rupee weakened to 86.60/66 to the dollar from Friday’s close of 86.25/30. “There were payments worth at least $100 million today (Thursday) and dollar inflows were soft due to the holidays,” said a dealer at a foreign bank. Looking ahead, dealers said the local unit could face further downward pressure, despite healthy remittances from Pakistanis living abroad, thanks to a widening current account deficit. The current account deficit surged to a provisional $908 million in September, compared with a deficit of $201 million in August. The deficit for the July-September quarter was a provisional $1.21 billion, compared with $597 million in the same period last year, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 11th, 2011.