KARACHI: The rupee appeared stronger against the US dollar on Monday as it strengthened by Rs1.95 to close at Rs217.97 in the interbank market.

The local currency has regained 9.8 per cent against the greenback during the last 12 sessions. The continued rupee’s appreciation is interesting for currency watchers especially when the world’s major currencies have been losing their value against the US dollar.

The US dollar has emerged as the strongest currency, particularly after the Russian attack on Ukraine and a subsequent spike in the world’s oil prices.

The US Federal Reserve has increased the interest rate up to 3.9pc to tackle unprecedented inflation, but European currencies like the Euro and Pound sterling have been falling against the greenback.

Arif Habib Ltd in its report on the briefing by the SBP to analysts about the rupee’s ongoing recovery drive, the central bank said in the wake of the floods it has received additional external commitments of up to $4 billion in the October-December period.

Giving a break-up, the central bank said an inflow of $1.5bn is expected from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) by the end of this month, almost $1bn from the United Nations, $0.5bn from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and $1bn from the World Bank between October-December.

However, the inflow from the World Bank is dependent on the completion of a few conditions, the SBP added.

The SBP is providing liquidity to the market which will help banks in releasing payments to clear import backlog.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2022