Rupee Falters Against US Dollar on Opening Day of New Week 

The Pakistani rupee (PKR) fell marginally against the US dollar (USD) in the inter-bank market on Monday.  At close of the day, the PKR settled at 278.17 against the greenback, down Rs. 0.05 or 0.02 percent from its previous close of 278.12.  In a major but expected development, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) cut the key policy rate by 200 basis points to 13 percent. The MPC statement highlighted that supported by narrowing gap between interbank and open market exchange rates and enabling policies, workers’ remittances remain strong.  The statement also said that the surplus in the current account, along with the improved foreign investment inflows, helped build up SBP’s FX reserves, despite weak official inflows.   Going forward, sustained uptrend in workers’ remittances and exports, along with favorable international commodity prices, are expected to keep the current account deficit near the lower bound of the projected 0 – 1 percent of GDP range in FY25. This will enable the SBP’s FX reserves to exceed $13 billion by June 2025, it added.  The Pakistani rupee was red against all of the other major currencies in the interbank market today. The PKR lost Rs. 1.22 against the Euro (EUR) to close at 292.29.  The rupee lost Rs. 0.1928 against the British Pound (GBP) to close at 351.4427. It also lost Rs. 0.1315 against the Australia dollar (AUD) and Rs. 0.1133 against the Canadian dollar (CAD) to close at 177.2096 and 195.5860, respectively.   Further, the rupee lost Rs. 0.0146 against the UAE Dirham (AED) and Rs. 0.0162 against the Saudi Riyal (SAR) to close at 75.7343 and 74.0272, respectively.