How did Pakistani rupee perform during the week?

KARACHI: Pakistani rupee got the title of best-performing currency during the week ended October 7, as it notched up 3.9% against the US dollar among all currencies.

The rupee made a fresh recovery of 0.92% (or Rs2.02) to a one-and-a-half-month high at Rs219.92 against the greenback in the interbank market on Friday, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data.

With this, it has cumulatively regained almost Rs19.79 in the past 11 consecutive working days since dropping near the all-time low of Rs239.94 on July 28, 2022.

The smart rally of the rupee came after the arrival of newly-appointed Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who is most famous for strong-arming the central bank to liberally inject foreign exchange into the market to prop up the rupee.

Since Dar was sworn in on September 28, the seasoned politician and chartered accountant faces the daunting task of stabilising an economy that has for months been in a tailspin, facing multiple threats of high inflation, a widening current account deficit and falling reserves.

He has strongly favoured intervention in currency markets in three previous stints on the job and is also expected to strengthen the currency.

‘Market is moving in right direction'

A day earlier, the minister said that without him having to do anything, the rupee started recovering as soon as he assumed the post of finance minister, assuring that the economic policymakers are making efforts to bring back the rupee to its original value, which is less than Rs200 against the US dollar.

Dar claimed that the market was moving in the “right direction” and correcting itself.

He further added that today’s rupee appreciation brought a reduction of around Rs2,600 billion in public debt and liabilities without “giving back even a single rupee”.

Topline Securities compiled data from some regional countries; let's take a look at some of the top regional countries and how much value have their currencies lost since 2022 to date: