Description:
Currency depreciated for the fourth straight working day as the IMF program"s recovery remained questionable.
The rupee has continued to fall, crossing Rs206 against the US dollar for the very first time in the interbank market on Wednesday, as expected.
A currency market trader stated at 9.45 a.m. that the domestic currency was trading at Rs206.09 against the US dollar, down Rs0.93.
The rupee has fallen for the fourth consecutive working day, losing a total of 2.65 percent (or Rs5.32) thus far.
The central bank appears impotent to stem the speculative decline of the rupee, with BMA Capital Executive Director Saad Hashemy projecting the domestic fair value at Rs190 against the greenback.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail stated on Monday that eliminating petroleum product subsidies until July is necessary to keep the country from going bankrupt, implying that fuel prices will rise again after breaking records earlier this month.
"Markets are uncomfortable due to the uncertainty regarding the IMF loan programme," Dr Khaqan Najeeb, a former adviser to the Ministry of Finance, told the Express Tribune.
He went on to say that the country should have started the process of resurrecting the halted credit programme a few months sooner.