KARACHI: The rupee remained nearly unchanged on Monday, despite a clutch of positive economic news flows, including Pakistan’s return to international capital markets after four years through the issuance of a Eurobond and optimism that the International Monetary Fund will approve fresh disbursements under the two loan programmes next month.
The rupee closed at 278.91 per dollar, compared with 278.92 in the previous session.The local currency unit rose slightly in the open market. It traded at 280.25 against the dollar, slightly higher from 280.28 in the previous session.
The government said that it has increased its Eurobond to $750 million from $500 million by exercising the green-shoe option. The three-year Eurobond has attracted significant global interest, enabling the government to broaden investor participation.
According to reports, the IMF’s executive board is expected to consider approval of a staff-level agreement next month, potentially paving the way for a new disbursement of about $1.2 billion under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility.
In another encouraging development, Pakistan has successfully repaid $2.4 billion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against maturing deposits due this month.Approximately $3.5 billion in deposits to the UAE were set to mature this month. The repayments were scheduled in tranches, including roughly $450 million on April 11, $2 billion on April 17, and $1 billion is due on April 23.
