The Pakistani Rupee is holding steady versus the US Dollar on the open market on Monday after losing ground versus the green back across the previous week. Last week the Pakistani Rupee started trading at 156.71, before closing on Friday at 158.60.
At 10:30 UTC USD/PKR is trading at 158.2 after the US announced a $1 million dollar aid package for Pakistan and as the US Senate failed to agree on a massive funding package for the US.
Initial Economic Loss Expected To Be Rs1.3 Trillion
The Pakistani Rupee was holding its ground at the start of the week even as risk sentiment took another hit. Coronavirus fears continue to drive the broader market with investors moving funds out of riskier assets.
Initial estimates from Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggest that the Pakistan economy could face economic losses in the region of Rs1.3 trillion owing to the coronavirus outbreak. These losses are expected to be incurred across different sectors of the economy and will result in a drop in the GDP.
The news comes after the US announced that it will fund $1 million to Pakistan to help it in its fight against coronavirus. So far in Pakistan over 450 people have contracted the virus and 2 people have died. The $1 million is to bolster monitoring and rapid response against the virus.
However, Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded that measures should go and loans to all poor countries should be waivered. Mr Khan said Pakistan does not have the resources to deal with the outbreak whilst cautioning that coronavirus will devastate economies of developing counties.
Rescue Package Still Not Agreed
The US Dollar was trading broadly weaker versus its peers after the US Senate failed to agree to a massive funding package to cushion the impact of coronavirus on the US economy. The final vote tally was 47 – 47, well short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill.
Despite the bill failing to progress President Trump remained positive that the lawmakers would push he $1 trillion rescue package through sooner rather than later.
There is no high impacting data due today. Instead investors will look to Washington for developments in Congress.
