Dollar soars to Rs169 in inter-bank market

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KARACHI: The dollar continued to fly high against the rupee in the inter-bank market on Friday and was being traded at a historical high of Rs169 as coronavirus shocks kept the foreign currency supply tight amid drying up inflows.

The rupee lost a further 2.87 in intraday trading today after hitting a record low of Rs 166.13 on Thursday.

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On Thursday, the rupee had slid 2.8% or Rs5.08 from Wednesday’s close of Rs161.60 due to interest rate cuts and repatriation of hot money amid increasing uncertainty in global markets fuelled by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Ongoing higher volatility in the currency is driven by supply and demand conditions in the market,” the chief spokesman of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) told The News when approached.

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The SBP has slashed the interest rate by cumulative 225 basis points to 11% this week to counter the impact of a virtual lockdown all over the country.

The rupee had remained stable, trading in the range of 154-155 between October 2019 and March 2020 under the market-based exchange rate regime. It started depreciating from earlier this month and has lost a cumulative Rs14 so far.