Dollar at a four-month low against Pakistani rupee

The US dollar dropped below the Rs164 mark on Thursday. The last time dollar traded below this level was on June 8.

The dollar rate fell to Rs163.9 from previous day’s Rs164.2, according to the State Bank of Pakistan.

On March 27, the dollar rose by Rs11 to reach an all-time high of Rs169 before a central bank intervention brought it down. That sudden rise was primarily because of a cut in the policy rate, which triggered an outflow of $1.67 billion from the country’s debt market in March alone.

Following that increase, everything paid for in dollars became expensive. For example, all automakers increased their prices correspondingly because they import up to 60% of their parts.

But the dollar has mostly traded in the range of Rs165 to Rs167 since then.

It became weaker in the international market as well. This was because of reports of a fresh stimulus package by the US government and fresh manufacturing data pointing to some recovery.