Currency: Rupee flat against dollar

KARACHI: The rupee ended almost flat at 90.69/75 to the dollar, compared with Wednesday’s close of 90.68/72. The rupee has been supported recently by remittances from Pakistanis overseas, which rose 21.45% to $9.73 billion in the first nine months of the 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with $8.02 billion in the same period last year. In March, remittances totalled $1.14 billion. Dealers also said they were awaiting the monetary policy announcement due on Friday, in which the key policy rate is expected to be kept unchanged at 12%. Overnight rates in the money market were flat at 11.90%, unchanged from the previous day’s close. Dealers said there were scheduled outflows of $2.45 billion and they expect the central bank to conduct a reverse-repo on Friday.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 13^th, 2012.