The Pakistani rupee registered a significant loss against the US dollar, depreciating nearly 1% during the early hours of trading in the inter-bank market on Tuesday.
At around 10:15am, the rupee was being quoted at 287.90, a decrease of Rs2.86 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market.
A day earlier, the rupee remained under pressure against the US dollar, closing at 285.04 in the inter-bank market, a decline of Rs1.25 or 0.44%.
Experts say the market awaits the resumption of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme, which has remained stalled since last year.
“The uncertainty pertaining to the IMF programme is causing pressure on the Pakistani rupee,” Sana Tawfik, vice-president research and a senior analyst at Arif Habib Limited (AHL) told Business Recorder.
“The country’s foreign exchange reserves have also declined in recent weeks, which is another source of concern for investors,” she said.
Tawfik added that the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) latest move to impose fines on exporters delaying receipt of payments would prove ineffective.
Last week, the central bank asked exporters to bring delayed export proceeds to Pakistan by April 30, otherwise, up to 9% of export proceeds amount will be marked as lien.
In a key development, it was learnt that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, accompanied by a high-powered delegation, will visit the US from April 10 to 16 to attend the upcoming annual spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank.
The delegation will hold a separate meeting with IMF officials during the visit, it was learnt.
The incumbent government has already said that it has fulfilled all requirements set by the international lender for the release of the $1.1 billion tranche.
Globally, the US dollar wobbled on Tuesday after a slump in US manufacturing activity last month pointed to further signs of a slowing economy and trumped renewed inflation concerns following OPEC+’s surprise output cut.
A Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey showed on Monday that manufacturing activity fell to the lowest level in nearly three years in March as new orders continued to contract, with all subcomponents of its manufacturing PMI below the 50 thresholds for the first time since 2009.
The US dollar index was marginally lower at 102.02, having fallen more than 0.5% on Monday.
Oil prices, a key indicator of currency parity, steadied in early Asian trade on Tuesday after OPEC+ plans to cut more production jolted markets the previous day, with investors’ attention shifting to demand trends and the impact of higher prices on the global economy.
