The Pakistani rupee (PKR) continued to fall on Tuesday as the country’s political turmoil worsened, trading at Rs233 to the dollar in the interbank market.
Today, the US dollar gained Rs3.12 versus the local currency, compared to the previous day’s finish of Rs229.88, which was an all-time high at the time.
The local currency has been under pressure for the past week due to increased political tensions in the country following the July 17 by-elections in Punjab, which the PTI easily won. Also, the rupee has been one of the world’s worst performers, falling 30.2 per cent since the beginning of 2022.
PKR had its worst week in more than two decades, ending on July 22, highlighting investor fear that a $1.2 billion loan tranche from the IMF approved last week could not be enough to alleviate the balance of payment crisis.
Fears of Pakistan defaulting on its foreign repayments remain in the market, despite the central bank’s guarantee that the country would comfortably cover its funding obligations as long as an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme remained in place.
The rupee fell by nearly 8 per cent last week, the most in a single week since October 1998.
