Rupee hits all-time low falls to 240 per USD

Web Desk (LTN NEWS): In early trading on Thursday, the Pakistani rupee hit a new all-time low of Rs240 against the US dollar. However, by the end of the day, the rupee had partly recovered and closed at Rs241.7 as buying rate in the open market.

The selling rate of Dollars in the open market today is 244.1. On the other hand, the selling rate in the interbank market is 239.75 and the buying rate of the US Dollar in the interbank is 239.25.

Every day, the rupee fell by another 0.31%, or Rs0.74. It was only Rs0.29 away from the record low close of Rs239.94 on July 28, 2022.

The fact that the currency has only partially recovered shows that it has avoided a bigger drop and may stay at its current level for the short term.

Wednesday was the 14th work day in a row that the value of the currency went down without a break. With the most recent drop, it has lost a total of Rs25.05, or 11.67%, in the past 14 days.

The rupee has kept going down because there is a high demand for US dollars to pay for imports and foreign debt.

On the other hand, export earnings and money sent home by workers have kept the supply of dollars low.

Foreign exchange reserves make up for the fact that there aren’t as many dollars as there are people who want them. Since January 2022, the reserves have kept going down and are now so low that they can’t cover imports for more than six weeks. At around $8 billion, this is a very dangerous level.

The currency is falling every day because there aren’t enough foreign exchange reserves to keep it stable.

More importantly, the US dollar has continued to get stronger against a group of other world currencies since the US central bank (Fed) hinted that it might raise its benchmark interest rate again to control inflation that has been high for decades.

Also, flood damage in Pakistan has increased the amount of cotton and other agricultural products that need to be bought with dollars. On the other hand, textile exporters worry that high inflation in the West will cause them to lose orders, which could slow the flow of dollars.

Because of this, the rupee may continue to lose value against the dollar.

Experts, on the other hand, think that the rupee should stay around its current value instead of continuing to fall.

 Government should help the rupee stabilize and get better by taking steps. They say that it should come up with a plan for long-term economic growth and building up reserves instead of only looking for bailout packages from friendly countries

The string of losses has made the rupee the currency with the worst performance in emerging markets. It could start a wave of very high inflation in the country.

An expert on emerging markets said that the delay in funds from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries is hurting the rupee right now.

Earlier, in August 2022, the local currency was named the best-performing currency in emerging markets.