KARACHI – Pakistani rupee is on course to emerge as the top performer currency globally during September 2023 as government crackdown, which is supported by military, on the smuggling and hoarding of dollar helped to control depreciation of rupee.
A report published by Bloomberg said the rupee witnessed almost 6 percent appreciation in September, a significant growth as “most currencies including the Thai baht and South Korean won tumbled against the dollar on speculation US interest-rates will stay elevated for longer”.
The currency rose 0.1% to Rs287.74 per dollar on Thursday, after touching the record-low level of about Rs307 in interbank market this month.
“Many leakages were happening through illegal channels of hawala and hundi trade from the open market,” Khurram Schehzad, Chief Executive Officer of Alpha Beta Core Solutions Pvt Ltd, a financial consultancy in Karachi told Bloomberg.
The report said the Pakistani government has intensified efforts against people involved in the illegal dollar trade. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) also raised the capital requirements of smaller exchange companies and ordered large banks to open their own exchange companies to make the retail foreign-exchange market more transparent.
SBP introduces structural reforms for Exchange Companies to ensure transparency
