Pakistani Rupee emerges as world’s best currency of 2021

As the remarkable march of the Pakistani rupee continues against the US dollar, PKR has emerged as the best performing currency in the world in the first three months of 2021.

“PKR has been the World's best currency against USD from January 1st to March 31st,” said CEO Tangent Capital, Muzammil Aslam in a tweet post.

In the interbank market, Pakistan Rupee gained 30 paisas for both buying and selling against USD on Wednesday, closing at 152.75 and 152.85 respectively. Whereas, in the open market, PKR gained 50 paisas for both buying and selling closing at 152.70 and 153.20 respectively.

The PKR has shown strong performance against other currencies as well. Against Euro, PKR gained one rupee for buying and 1.20 rupees for selling closing at 177.70 and 179 respectively, whereas, against UAE Dirham, PKR gained 10 paisas for buying and 15 paisas for selling closing at 41.35 and 41.70 respectively.

“It’s good to celebrate but equally concern to maintain the competitiveness. I’m on for gradual changes than abrupt,” Aslam added in his tweet post.

The upward trajectory of PKR against USD continues after Pakistan on Tuesday night received around $500 million from International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a loan tranche under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for budget support. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) confirmed that it has received an IMF tranche amounting to $ 498.7 million (equivalent to SDR 350 million) under the Extended Fund Facility.

These inflows will help to build the country’s foreign exchange reserves and reduce the pressure on the external accounts.

Furthermore, Pakistan also launched a three-tranche bond deal to raise $2.5 billion comprising tranches of five, 10, and 30 years for which it received over $5.3 billion in combined orders in its first international bond sale since late 2017.

Meanwhile, the government and SBP initiatives too have played a part in PKR strengthening. Last year, the government and SBP launched Roshan Digital Account (RDAs) to provide banking facilities to overseas Pakistanis to attract more foreign inflows. RDAs has also received over $500 million deposits during the last five months.