Currency: Rupee ends almost flat against dollar

KARACHI: The rupee ended almost flat at 90.74/78 to the dollar, compared with Thursday’s close of 90.73/80, and dealers expect some pressure on the rupee because of rising global oil prices. Oil was trading close to $123 a barrel on Friday. The rupee had been supported this week by remittances from overseas Pakistanis. In February, remittances stood at $1.16 billion. There was also concern about Pakistan’s trade deficit, which widened by 41%. Exports in the July-Feb period totaled $15.19 billion, and imports totaled $29.79 billion. The central bank kept the key policy rate flat at 12% for two months in its monetary policy announcement in February. In the money market, overnight rates rose to 11.90%, compared with Thursday’s close of 9.10%, because of tight liquidity in the interbank market. Dealers said there were scheduled outflows of Rs350 billion ($3.9 billion) against inflows of Rs320 billion on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2012.