KARACHI: The Pakistani rupee hit a record low on Monday, touching 88.04 to the dollar on increased import payments and negative regional sentiment on currencies.
The rupee was trading at 88.00/10 to the dollar at 10:13 a.m. (0513 GMT), compared with Friday’s close of 87.75/80.
Its previous low point was in September at 87.92.
“So far there’s been about one (import) payment of around $50 million to $60 million, but there is generally cautious to weak sentiment about currencies of the region,” said a dealer at a foreign bank.
According to a poll conducted by Reuters last week, investors have grown more bearish on most emerging Asian currencies in the last two weeks as Europe’s debt crisis deepens.
Dealers said there was also some pessimism regarding the country’s economy, which put the rupee under further pressure.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $16.96 billion in the week ending Nov. 18, after hitting a record $18.31 billion in the week ending July 30.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) also assessed that the outlook for Pakistan’s economy for the current year ending June 2012 was “challenging”, dealers said.
In a statement last week, the IMF said that ongoing security concerns were likely to limit capital inflows.
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