KARACHI, Oct 11(ABC):The Pakistani rupee maintained its winning streak against the greenback, gaining Rs1.17 in the interbank market on the hopes of dollar inflows in the country in the next two months.
The local currency appreciated for the 13th consecutive session and was changing hands at Rs216.80 per dollar at around 12:45pm.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has given more confidence to the market by assuring that the economic management will improve, this has led to the continuous upward trend of the rupee, a capital market expert, who wished to be not named told Geo.tv.
The expert said that the rupee’s appreciation is also in line with the authorities cracking down on speculative activities in the currency market.
“There is an expectation of dollar inflows in the next one to two months which has also improved market sentiments,” he added.
A day earlier, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) leadership had clarified to analysts in its post-monetary policy committee meeting that it was initially due to the market’s sentimental reaction to the change of finance minister that the local currency was making gains against the dollar.
However, analysts were also told that several other factors supported the strengthening of the local unit against the US dollar, which included improvement in inflows in form of remittances and exports; crackdown on speculators; and declining gap between interbank and KERB