Latest news with #rupee
Reuters
an hour ago
- Business
- Reuters
Pakistan spy agency targets black market dollar trade to curb rupee slide
KARACHI, July 24 (Reuters) - A deputy chief at Pakistan's spy agency met with currency exchange firms this week amid a sharp slide in the rupee, leading to a crackdown on black market dollar trade, the head of the country's forex association told Reuters on Thursday. The move, a demonstration of the military's growing role in managing the economy, marks the second such intervention, following a 2023 army clamp down that halted an earlier sharp plunge in the currency, helping stabilise the exchange rate until this month. Currency dealers say the rupee is again under pressure as a result of dollar hoarding, cross-border smuggling, and banking restrictions that have driven demand to unregulated dealers offering quicker or better rates. Faisal Naseer, a major general heading the internal security arm of the military's Inter-Services Intelligence, met with exchange firms this week, according to Malik Muhammad Bostan, chairman of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan. Following the meeting, security forces, including the Federal Investigation Agency - a civilian security agency - began targeting illegal currency dealers, many of whom subsequently went underground, he said. The open market dollar rate was down one rupee following the intervention, said Bostan, who credited the enforcement drive and a resulting improvement in the supply of dollars to the market. A spokesperson for the military's media wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Border controls with Iran and Afghanistan were tightened during tensions with India earlier this year, curbing illicit currency flows. But with checks now eased and the central bank buying dollars to build reserves, formal supply is under strain, Bostan said. Under Pakistan's $7 billion programme with the International Monetary Fund, authorities have pledged to keep the gap between the interbank and open market rates within 1.25% to prevent remittances - crucial to maintaining foreign exchange levels - from shifting to informal channels and eroding reserves. Despite this week's crackdown, dollars are still not available in upscale areas of the commercial hub Karachi, pushing buyers to the grey market, where rates remain about 5% above interbank, said Adnan Sheikh of Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company.
Arab News
2 hours ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan spy agency targets ‘black market dollar trade' to curb rupee slide — forex association president
KARACHI: A deputy chief of Pakistan's spy agency met currency exchange firms this week to address a sharp slide in the rupee, prompting a security crackdown on 'black market dollar trade,' the head of the country's forex association told Reuters on Thursday. The action helped stabilize the open market rate and the rupee recovered against the dollar by one rupee on Thursday, said Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan chairman Malik Muhammad Bostan. 'The dollar is down one rupee today in the open market. This is because we're finally getting the supply we need,' Bostan said. A spokesperson for the spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The ISI is led by Pakistan's powerful military. The action marks the second such intervention in two years after the military helped curb speculative currency trade in 2023
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Pakistan Army Intelligence Officer Meets FX Body as Rupee Falls
A group of private foreign exchange companies in Pakistan met with the head of an intelligence department this week to discuss the local rupee's slump. 'We briefed them about the current currency market situation,' said Malik Bostan, the chairman of the Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan, referring to a July 22 meeting with Major General Faisal Naseer, a director general in the Inter-Services Intelligence.
Reuters
3 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Pakistan spy agency targets 'black market dollar trade' to curb rupee slide, says forex association president
KARACHI, July 24 (Reuters) - A deputy chief of Pakistan's spy agency met currency exchange firms this week to address a sharp slide in the rupee, prompting a security crackdown on "black market dollar trade", the head of the country's forex association told Reuters on Thursday. The action helped stabilise the open market rate and the rupee recovered against the dollar by one rupee on Thursday, said Exchange Companies Association of Pakistan chairman Malik Muhammad Bostan. "The dollar is down one rupee today in the open market. This is because we're finally getting the supply we need," Bostan said. A spokesperson for the spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. The ISI is led by Pakistan's powerful military. The action marks the second such intervention in two years after the military helped curb speculative currency trade in 2023.
Reuters
5 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Barclays says rupee fall 'overdone', BofA Global Research stays bullish
MUMBAI, July 24 (Reuters) - The Indian rupee's recent fall looks overdone to analysts at Barclays while their counterparts at BofA Global Research reckon that portfolio flows and a weak outlook for the dollar may help the rupee rise over the remainder of the year. Both hedge funds and real money investors added long positions on the rupee last month, per BofA's proprietary flow indicators. The firm expects the rupee to strengthen to 84 per U.S. dollar by the final quarter of calendar year 2025. Barclays, meanwhile, argues the rupee's decline over recent months is "reaching limits over the short term," and recommends fading any weakness around 86.50-87.00 levels. Although the firm sees a near-term limit to the rupee's decline, it has maintained its view towards INR depreciation in the months ahead. The rupee is on course to log its third consecutive monthly decline in July and has fallen about 2% from a 6-month peak of 84.58 hit in early-May. On the day, the currency was up 0.1% at 86.33 as of 12:15 P.M. IST. While a rise in Asian peers helped the rupee strengthen, dollar bids from at least two large foreign banks, likely on behalf of custodial clients, limited the gains, a trader at a mid-sized private bank said. Analysts at both Barclays and BofA Global Research also pointed out that the rupee's valuation in terms of both the nominal and real effective exchange rates has declined. "Given its recent FX competitiveness improvement there is less need for a further near term drop in the currency," Barclays analysts wrote in the Thursday note. Data released by the Reserve Bank of India after market-hours on Wednesday showed the rupee's 40-currency real effective exchange rate (REER) declined to 100.36, the lowest since May 2023. A REER above 100 indicates overvaluation of a currency while a sub-100 reading indicates undervaluation.
