Business

Rupee claws back on bailout revival assurances

Published

2 years ago

Farwa

Rupee appreciates by Rs6.63 against dollar in interbank market.
Local currency closes at 278.46 in interbank market.
Rupee had slumped by nearly Rs19 against greenback a day earlier.

KARACHI: The Pakistan rupee gained significant ground against the US dollar after Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s assurances of striking a deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) next week.

The local currency appreciated by Rs6.63, or 2.38%, in the interbank market and closed at 278.46 against the greenback, as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

Interbank closing #ExchangeRate for todayhttps://t.co/6cNkqlH1bE pic.twitter.com/ThBJpzAyfX
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) March 3, 2023

On Thursday, the rupee slumped by nearly Rs19 against the US dollar due to the central bank’s monetary policy review and concerns over a stalled IMF deal.

The rupee slumped by Rs18.98 or 6.66% to close at 285.09 against the dollar in the interbank market as per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), down from Wednesday’s close of Rs266.11.

Speaking to Geo.tv, ECAP General Secretary Zafar Paracha cited a few reasons for the dollar depreciation, saying that the IMF urged Pakistan to trade the dollar at the rate it was being sold near the Afghan border.

“In other words, the IMF had stated that rather than the interbank rate or the open market, our true rate should be the grey market rate,” he added.

A day earlier, Dar had assured that Pakistan would strike a staff-level agreement with the Washington-based lender next week as the negotiations are about to conclude.

The finance minister — who took charge in September last year after Miftah Ismail was removed — also said that the economy is headed in the right direction and blamed miscreants for spreading rumours about Pakistan’s possible default.

“Anti-Pakistan elements are spreading malicious rumors that Pakistan may default. SBP forex reserves have been increasing and are almost US $1 billion higher than four weeks ago despite making all external due payments on time,” FinMin Dar said.

The finance minister added that the negotiations with IMF are about to conclude and we expect to sign SLA with the Fund by next week. “All economic indicators are slowly moving in the right direction,” he added.

Business

Robust activity lets PSX climb above 115,000 level again.

Published

2 days ago

Farwa

On Friday, the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) resumed its upward trend, crossing 115,000 points once more.

The PSX had strong action in the morning session, as the KSE-100 index increased by 1,000 points to 115,138.

The notoriously volatile PSX closed Thursday at 114,037 points, up 594 points.

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Meanwhile, in the interbank market this morning, the US dollar fell 7 paisas to Rs278.65 against the Pakistani rupee.

Business

SBP will announce monetary policy on January 27.

Published

2 days ago

Farwa

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will release its monetary policy on Monday.

The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the SBP will convene on the first day of the following week to make decisions on monetary policy.

The Monetary Policy decision will be announced by Governor SBP Jameel Ahmad at a news conference on the same day after the MPC meeting, according to an official release.

In December, the central bank reduced policy rates by 200 basis points (bps) to 13 percent.

“In November 2024, headline inflation fell to 4.9 percent year on year, meeting the MPC’s estimates. This decrease was mostly caused by the ongoing decline in food inflation and the phasing out of the impact of the gas tariff increase in November 2023,” SBP stated in an official release.

“However, the Committee noted that core inflation, at 9.7 percent, is proving to be sticky, while consumer and business inflation expectations remain volatile.” To that end, the Committee restated its previous assessment that inflation may remain volatile in the short term before stabilizing within the target range.

“At the same time, growth prospects have slightly improved, as evidenced by a recent increase in high-frequency indicators of economic activity.” Overall, the Committee concluded that its approach of gradual policy rate decreases is keeping inflationary and external account pressures under control while promoting long-term economic growth.

Business

Finance Minister Meets With World Leaders at World Economic Forum in Davos

Published

3 days ago

Farwa

During his attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb has met with officials of organisations and leaders of many nations.
Bangladesh’s Chief Advisor, Muhammad Younas, met with Mohammad Aurangzeb.
On the fringes of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2025 Opening Banquet, there was an informal meeting.
Additionally, the Finance Minister met with Anwar Ibrahim, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Both leaders discussed economic cooperation and bilateral ties.
Muhammad Aurangzeb also had a meeting with Dp World’s Rizwan Soomro and Yuvraj Narayan.
They talked about how to strengthen Pakistan’s logistics and infrastructure systems to support trade.
“The Pakistani government is committed to advancing joint projects and values partnerships in both business-to-business and business-to-government cooperation,” the finance minister added.