Rupee gains against the dollar in outgoing week

The Pakistani rupee made slight gains in the outgoing week due to steady import payments, improving economic indicators and positive sentiment, The News reported on Sunday.

The Rupee rose 10 paisas against the dollar in the interbank market. On Monday, the currency closed at 155 against the greenback, compared to last closing of 154.96.

The rupee was range-bound, trading in the band of 154.90 and 154.94 in the remaining four sessions.

In the open market, the local currency lost 30 paisas to close at 155 to the dollar in the outgoing week.

Currency dealers said the rupee is likely to stay range-bound in the coming week because of strong foreign exchange reserves positions, healthy foreign inflows and improvement in the balance of payments.

The completion of first review of the country’s economic performance by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also boosted the market sentiment.

A persistent increase in the central bank’s foreign currency reserves is expected to cushion the external current account.

Analysts have predicted the current account deficit to be in the range of $6 billion to $6.5 billion in the current fiscal year of 2019/20.

The country’s current account deficit fell 73 per cent to $1.821 billion in July-November FY20.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan also jumped to $10.892 billion as of December 13 from $9.233 billion a week ago due to multilateral and other official inflows.

Originally published in The News