KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee fell 2.7 percent against the US dollar on Friday to a record low after a steep slide on Thursday, with hopes raised by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team visiting Islamabad next week to discuss unlocking a suspended bail-out package.
The rupee closed at 262.6 per dollar in the interbank market against a close of 255 on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Pakistani rupee showed signs of steadying after steep decline over the previous two days.
On Thursday, the Pakistani rupee fell 9.6 percent against the dollar in the inter-bank market, the biggest one-day drop in over two decades, a day after foreign exchange companies removed a cap on the exchange rate.
Hours after the rupee was left to the market forces to decide its worth, the IMF announced that its delegation will be visiting Pakistan from Jan 31 to Feb 9 to discuss its 9th review of a bailout package agreed for $6 billion in 2019, and topped up to $7 billion last year.
“As we have seen the announcement, and the IMF program is resumed, we should be, God willing, good,” former finance minister Miftah Ismail told Geo TV, adding that it will head off the risk of Pakistan defaulting on its external obligations.
Disbursements from the package were suspended in November, due the lack of progress on fiscal consolidation, hastening Pakistan’s slide deeper into a balance of payments crisis, with foreign exchange reserves currently only able to cover three weeks imports.
