Pak rupee remains under pressure against dollar

The Pakistani rupee remains under pressure against the US dollar in the open market as insufficient dollar inflows couple with further devaluation rumors, currency dealers and analysts say. “People think that in the coming days the Pak rupee will be further under pressure due to the increasing demand for the dollar, so they start buying, anticipating a dollar shortage,” said Zeeshan Afzal, executive director-research at Insight Securities, referring to the recent hike in the value of greenback against the Pak rupee. which touched PKR119.05 ($1.03) on Friday and closed down at PKR118.70 on Saturday in the open market. “Perception and real need (demand) drives the currency exchange market in both ways,” Afzal told Arab News. “In Ramadan the inflow of remittances has declined, demand for the dollar from those going for Umrah has increased,” Muzamil Aslam, senior economist and CEO of EFG-Hermes Pakistan said. Dr. Miftah Ismail, finance minister of Pakistan, has repeatedly denied further devaluation of the national currency, which has been devalued twice up to 10 percent recently. Aslam believes the rupee will be further devalued, and he sees no way out of the current situation.