The rupee grew stronger Thursday against the US dollar during early trading on the back of approval given by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the stand-by arrangement (SBA). Soon after the interbank trading started at 9:30am, the local currency gained Rs2.50 against the greenback but later settled to a Rs1.98 increase by the time this report was filed at 10:15am. Thus, the US dollar was available for Rs275.50 against the Wednesday’s closing value of Rs277.48 as the previous session too had witnessed the local currency going up by 91 paisa. The gains made by the Pakistani rupee come as a bruised dollar was nudged lower still in Asia on Thursday after traders took surprisingly slow US inflation as a signal US interest rate rises will be all but finished by month's end. The dollar had its worst session in five months overnight, falling more than 1 per cent against the euro to its lowest in more than a year and notching even

larger losses elsewhere. The euro hit a fresh 15-month high of $1.1141 in early Asia trade and the yen, up 0.3pc at 138.16 per dollar, was its strongest since mid-May whle the US dollar index fell marginally to 100.47, its lowest since April 2022. On the other hand, the New Zealand dollar reached a two-month high of $0.6309 and the Aussie a three-week peak of $0.6796.

 
Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP