Rupee falls against dollar for second day

KARACHI: The rupee fell against the dollar in the interbank market for the second consecutive session on Tuesday.

The rupee ended at 278.37 to the dollar, slightly weaker than its closing at 278.33 on Monday.However, the local currency recovered from the previous session’s losses in the open market. The rupee was trading at 279.77 per dollar, compared with 279.80 in the previous session.

Despite encouraging news flows, according to the dealers, the currency continued its downward course, although slowly.“The rupee is depreciating because of the demand for foreign money for imports and other obligations,” a currency dealer said.

Data from the State Bank of Pakistan showed on Monday that Pakistan posted in March its highest current account surplus since February 2015. With remittances and other current transfers being significantly better, this huge surplus may be an anomaly caused by the Ramzan effect.

At its meeting on April 29, the executive board of the International Monetary Fund is expected to approve the final $1.1 billion tranche under the stand-by arrangement for Pakistan.By June or July, Pakistan hopes to have a staff level agreement with the IMF on a larger loan programme. This is according to Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb. Additionally, he anticipated that by the end of this fiscal year, the SBP's foreign exchange reserves will be $9–10 billion.