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Rupee registers handsome losses in pre-monetary policy session

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3 years ago

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  • In interbank market, rupee fell 2.01 or 0.93%.
  • The local unit closes at 216.66 against dollar.
  • Rupee fell 0.31% against greenback last week.

KARACHI: The Pakistan rupee lost ground against the US dollar Monday ahead of the monetary policy announcement — scheduled for today — and the speculations surrounding the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

In the interbank market, the rupee fell 2.01 or 0.93% against the dollar to close at 216.66, down from Friday’s close of 214.65, according to data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The greenback traded at 213-214 during the outgoing week. It closed at 213.98 per dollar on Monday and finished at 214.65 on Friday. The rupee fell 0.31% against the greenback last week.

Economist and former adviser to the federal ministry of finance Dr Khaqan Hassan Najeeb said the local unit slipped by Rs2 against the dollar due to political developments and the strengthening of the dollar internationally.

“But we also know the economic situation remains challenging. SBP reserves are weak at $7.8 billion — hardly enough for over a month of imports,” he said.

Non-oil imports are curbed by SBP by rationing the opening of letter of credit (LC), the economist said, adding that oil is already in excess, so oil imports are low.

“Point being, we are operating in a restricted environment, and there would be import needs piling up.”

Getting flows including IMF money, multilateral and bilateral monies, and new foreign direct investment (FDI) is essential to normalise the balance of payments.

“Of-course exports drop and remittance slowdown in July must be looked at carefully.”

Talking to The News, a trader said that apart from forex inflows and outflows, the monetary policy decision will be instrumental to gauge the rupee’s future direction.

Another factor that weakened the rupee was a shortage of greenback in the open market, which moved up the rate of the interbank price of the dollar as well.

The government lifted a ban on the import of non-essential and luxury goods to meet a condition of the IMF ahead of the board’s meeting later this month to revive the loan programme.

However, it announced the imposition of heavy duties on completely built units cars, mobile phones, and electronic appliances to discourage imports.

The market will also evaluate the impact of opening up luxury imports on the rupee, according to traders.

The foreign currency reserves have started to recover. The foreign reserves held by the central bank slightly increased by $67 million or 0.9% to $7.9 billion as of August 12.

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Robust activity lets PSX climb above 115,000 level again.

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On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

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Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

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SBP will announce monetary policy on January 27.

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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.

The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.

In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.

“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.

“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.

“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.

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Finance Minister Meets With World Leaders at World Economic Forum in Davos

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During his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with officials of organisations and leaders of many nations.
Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Younas, met with Mohammad Aurangzeb.
On the fringes of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 Opening Banquet, there was an informal meeting.
Additionally, the Finance Minister met with Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Both leaders discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties.
Muhammad Aurangzeb also had a meeting with Dp World’s Rizwan Soomro and Yuvraj Narayan.
They talked about how to strengthen Pakistan’s logistics and infrastructure systems to support trade.
“The Pakistani government is committed to advancing joint projects and values partnerships in both business-to-business and business-to-government cooperation,” the finance minister added.

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