KARACHI: After dipping more than a month, dollar crossed Rs99 rupees a dollar both in inter-bank and open market.
With the beginning of Ramazan, dollar had fallen to below Rs99 and most of the time kept hovering around Rs98.50.
However, for the first time in 40 days, the US currency gained strength to cross Rs99. Political uncertainty and a number of other reasons were cited for the fall of local currency.
The government had to pay $147 million to the IMF as repayment and debt-servicing while $100m was also required for oil payments.
Banking sources said the State Bank bought dollars through small banks on Monday which created both demand and shortage.
The open market also responded in the same tone and the dollar went up to Rs99.20 and Rs99.30. The open market remained calm during Ramazan due to high remittances from overseas Pakistanis.
Currency experts said the high tide would fall on Tuesday and the local currency will strengthen its position.
The State Bank has foreign exchange reserves worth over $9 billion while holdings of scheduled banks are also above $5bn. With such reserves and the remittances of about $16bn received from overseas Pakistanis, the exchange rate held untouched.
