Karachi August 4 2022: Pakistan Rupee appreciate for the fifth consecutive day and gains rupee 4.01 against dollar in the interbank to trade at 224.79 as International Monetary Fund’s board is expected to approve staff-level agreement with Pakistan in the third week of August amid crackdown on exchange companies and Banks.
Yesterday, Pakistan Rupee recorded highest daily appreciation in absolute terms by rupee 9.58 or 4.19 percent in the interbank to close at 228.8 due to higher export-related payments and optimism the beleaguered nation is inching toward securing the International Monetary Fund bailout.
The International Monetary Fund’s board is expected to approve staff-level agreement with Pakistan in the third week of August, State Bank of Pakistan said in a statement, citing acting Governor Murtaza Syed.
IMF board will meet after vacations in the first half of August are over.
Pakistan’s central bank “believes that rupee is undervalued at the moment and dollar has overshot in the forex market due to several reasons”.
In view of recent volatility in the exchange rate and the difference between the interbank rate and the rate offered by Exchange Companies (ECs) and banks to their customers, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has increased the monitoring of the foreign exchange operations of ECs and banks.
In this respect, SBP started inspections of a number of exchange companies and banks since Monday (August 1, 2022)
On Tuesday (August 2, 2022) SBP suspended the operations of four branches of two ECs (Galaxy Exchange Co and Al-Hameed International Money Exchange Co) for violation of SBP regulations. SBP has also imposed monetary penalties on some ECs in the recent past. Besides, due to violations of SBP instructions, arrangements of 13 franchises have been terminated by six different ECs in the recent past.
SBP has also started conducting mystery shopping exercise throughout Pakistan to investigate the apprehensions that some ECs are not selling foreign currency to their customers. A meeting of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan has also been called on August 4, 2022.
If needed, SBP would augment its enforcement actions on the ECs and the banks in light of findings of the on-going inspections and mystery shopping.
