The Pakistani rupee continued to lose ground and fell to an all-time low of Rs173.96 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market on Thursday following a fresh depreciation of Rs0.49 (or 0.28%).
The local currency closed at Rs173.47 against the US dollar in the inter-bank on Wednesday.
For the previous five months, the rupee has been on a downward trend. It has dropped 14.24 percent (or Rs21.69) after reaching a 22-month high of Rs152.27 in May.
The rupee has depreciated by 10.42 percent (or Rs16.42) from the beginning of the current fiscal year on July 1, 2021, according to statistics provided by the central bank.
Since global commodity prices have more than quadrupled in recent months, brokerage firms have raised their predictions for the rupee-dollar parity to Rs176-178 by the end of June 2022, up from an earlier estimate of about Rs170.
As a result of the worldwide price rise, Pakistan’s demand for the US dollar to pay for imports is likely to remain strong.
Analysts believe the rupee will weaken in the near term as a result of increased demand from oil and manufacturing importers, as well as concessionary lending schemes such as the State Bank of Pakistan’s temporary economic refinance scheme, which aims to foster investment activities even during the COVID-19’s difficult times.