The Pakistani rupee continued its losing streak against the U.S. dollar, touching a record low, as the greenback was traded at 299.01 rupees in the interbank market yesterday, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The U.S. dollar closed at 297.13 rupees on Monday. On the second session of the week, the local currency depreciated by 1.88 rupees, or 0.63 percent, against the dollar, official figures showed.

This is the lowest level for the rupee against the dollar. In May it settled at the previous record low of 298.93.

The internal, as well as, external forces, are causing this sharp decline of the rupee, Sajid Amin Javed, an economist at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a local think-tank, said.

“The International Monetary Fund’s demand of reducing the difference between the inter-bank and open-market rates, to let the market forces determine the value, where letting the rupee to further depreciate in the inter-bank, is further putting a pressure on the open market and has eventually resulted in their entrance into a vicious cycle,” he said.

Moreover, political uncertainty in the country and global rise of the greenback, are among the core reasons for the declining value of the local currency, Javed said.

“A 50-percent fall is due to the global rise of the U.S. dollar,” the economist added

Source: Nam News Network