KARACHI: The rupee appreciated by 1.57 per cent on a day-on-day basis to close at 215.49 against the dollar in the interbank market on Friday.

The local currency recovered 10.8pc in the last 9 working days supporting the exchange rate to gain stability. Despite no funding from any bilateral or multilateral sources, the rupee has been gaining strength against the US dollar only in the hopes of the expected release of a $1.17bn tranche by the IMF board this month.

The declining trend for the greenback looks set for another week.

However, currency experts still believe that the speculators are benefitting from the country’s fragile foreign exchange reserves.

They were of the view that speculators were involved in the current buying and selling of the dollars and they may go to any extent to exploit the current situation.

The State Bank of Pakistan’s reserves dropped below $8bn in the last week signaling that the external front of the economy is vulnerable and the greenback could see another sharp spike in the coming days, they believe.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2022