Rupee Rise Against US dollar, Gaining Rs11.5 to Reach Rs299.5

Newstoday: On Thursday, the rupee significantly increased against the US dollar in the open market, with a gain of Rs11.5 to reach Rs299.5. According to analysts, this gain in dollars was due to the SBP, which allowed the banks to gain US dollars from the interbank market for the purpose of cross-border transactions with the international payment process. This permission is temporary, as the circular issued by the SBP indicates that it will end on July 31. Before this development, the open market dollar rate was around Rs30 higher than the interbank market, where the dollar had closed at Rs285.47 the previous day.

Yesterday, Zafar Paracha,, expressed his support for the SBP decision to allow banks to get US dollars from the international bank market for the reason of cross-border transactions. Paracha believed that this decision would positively impact the open market dollar rate, potentially reducing it by up to Rs20-25 and narrowing the gap between the interbank and open market rates. He also noted that many exchange companies had been relying on banks to purchase dollars from them, but this demand had decreased significantly with the new SBP policy, resulting in a sharp drop in the dollar's price.