Dubai: Pakistan’s rupee rebounded early Thursday following the currency’s worst nosedive in nine years the day before.
The battered rupee lost more than 3 per cent against the dollar on Wednesday fuelling speculation about the immediate future of the rupee as bank heads prepared to sit down for talks with government officials.
The rupee tumbled 3.1 per cent to 108.095 per dollar at close of trading on Wednesday, the lowest level since December 2013. Analysts including Karachi-based Topline Securities Ltd, BMA Capital Management Ltd and BMI Research said the nation had devalued its currency.
On Thursday morning, the rupee made a small comeback, according to wire reports, pushing upwards by roughly 1 per cent to 107.1 per dollar.
According to Bloomberg, the tumble happened amid regional and international criticism of the rupee’s value.
For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) remarked in 2016 that the Pakistani rupee might be overvalued by at least 20 per cent.
Recently, the IMF noted that economic stability reached under a three-year $6.6-billion loan programme that ended last year has begun to erode. Pakistan’s current account gap has more than doubled to $8.9 billion in 11 months ended May compared with $3.2 billion in the same period last year, Bloomberg reported.
The “State Bank of Pakistan will continue to closely monitor the developments in the foreign exchange markets and stands ready to ensure stability in the financial markets”, the central bank said on Wednesday.
— With inputs from Bloomberg
