Rupee falls to record low against dollar

KARACHI: The dollar rose sharply against the Pakistani rupee after aggressive buying on Friday. The US currency, which had traded at Rs 64.75 on Wednesday, rose to as high as Rs 65.25 on Friday. A banker told Daily Times that many banks were short of dollars. “They were aggressively buying the US currency, which pushed its value up sharply,” he said. “There were fewer sellers than buyers.” However, he said there was no injection from the central bank. To prevent a sharp slide of the rupee, the State Bank of Pakistan has been intervening in the market in the recent past, which has depleted foreign exchange reserves. Sources said it was all-time low level for the Pakistani rupee. “It shows how weak our economy is at this time. All over the world the dollar is losing value against major currencies, and our currency is going down against the dollar,” an analyst said. Another analyst said the rupee was getting weaker because of increasing imports.