Rupee remains within 279-280/$ band

ARACHI: Pakistani currency continued to depreciate for the third consecutive working day on Tuesday as it reached Rs279.31 against the US dollar in the inter-bank market. According to State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) data, the rupee trimmed 0.02% of its value, or Rs0.05, against the greenback on a day-on-day basis. Market talk suggests that exporters were charging a higher premium on US dollar sales on futures counters, which put the rupee under little bit of pressure. Otherwise, there was ample supply of foreign currency in the domestic market. More importantly, the rupee has regained 10%, or Rs28, in the past five and a half months, hitting over four-month high at Rs279.11/$ late last week compared to the all-time low of Rs307.10/$ touched in the first week of September 2023. Financial experts said the significant recovery turned the rupee overvalued, which signalled that there was some room for depreciation in the near term.