ISLAMABAD:Pakistan Businesses Forum (PBF) Vice President Ahmad Jawad has said country exports started increasing, including positive improvement in remittances as well as surplus in the current account structure.
In a statement on Sunday, Jawad said: “Exchange rate is a fundamental price in the economy, and getting it right is essential not just for boosting the export sector but also for providing a measure of protection to domestic industry.”
The Pakistani Rupee had a volatile 2020 after starting the year at Rs154.87 against the US Dollar. The local currency ended the year at Rs159.83 against the greenback after touching an all-time low of Rs168.43 during the year.
In the calendar year 2020, the lowest exchange rate that PKR-USD recorded was Rs154.1697 to the USD on February 14, 2020, and the highest exchange rate was Rs168.43 to the USD on August 26, 2020.
According to the financial analytics platform, Capital Stake, the year-to-date change in the Rupee, was still down by Rs4.99 (or 3.22 percent) deterioration against the greenback. The month to date movement for the Rupee has also been downward with a loss of Rs0.41 in total (or 0.26 percent) against the USD. However, if compared with the 52-week high of Rs168.43, the domestic currency saw a recovery of 5.11 percent or Rs8.6 versus the dollar.
The year was initially stable going for a plunge all the way to Rs168 due to ambiguity over coronavirus and economic shutdown. However, flows from multilateral lenders, remittances growth, compressed imports and export resurgence has kept the Rupee solid at Rs160.
Jawad also added the Rupee would recover with the inflows. “Pakistan offers the fourth highest one-year interest rate of 7.4 per cent in emerging markets, but this is not high enough to encourage inflows into Pakistani rupee bonds.”