Pakistani rupee continues speedy crash against USD, suffers big fall

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani rupee (PKR) has continued a speedy crash against the US dollar with another big fall as the greenback was traded at a record high price of 276.58 PKR in the interbank market, the central bank announced.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the latest fall came during trading on Friday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The US dollar closed at 271.36 PKR on Thursday.On the last working day of the week, the local currency depreciated by 5.22 PKR, or about 1.89 per cent, against the US dollar, official figures showed.

Talking to Xinhua, Reza Baqir, former governor of the SBP, said that depleting foreign exchange reserves of the country, along with the fall in exports and decline in remittances from overseas Pakistanis, is directly influencing the foreign reserves and eventually the value of the rupee.

Baqir said that all these factors as well as the global recession is contributing to negative sentiments and uncertainty in the market, which resulted in the free fall of the local currency.