The Pakistani rupee (PKR) has become stronger compared to the US dollar in both open and interbank markets. In the open market, it’s now around 301/305 PKR per USD, and in the interbank market, it’s about 302.74/302.84 PKR per USD.
In just the last four days, the PKR has gained a lot, around 30 rupees or nearly 10%, going from 331 PKR to 301 PKR per USD. This is significant.
This happened because of changes made by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to how exchange companies work. They want to make these companies more organized and with higher capital requirements. Big banks are also encouraged to create their own exchange companies for public foreign exchange needs.
The government is also cracking down on people who speculate, hoard, or smuggle money. This is helping reduce the difference between the open market and interbank rates, which is now much lower than what the IMF recommended.
Even the black market for unofficial money transfer (Hawala/Hundi) is seeing lower dollar rates.
Before, the demand for dollars because of speculation and smuggling made the gap between the open market and interbank rates much bigger, causing worry. But now, government actions are working to control this without needing to interfere in the interbank rates.
If the government does similar things to control gold smuggling, it could make things even better. Some people might choose to invest in smuggled gold instead of buying dollars, so controlling that is important too.
