• Pakistan Rupee (PKR) weakens after 3 days of gains
  • Oil surges +6% this week on OPEC
  • US Dollar (USD) extends gains
  • US NFP sees 379k jobs added

The US Dollar Pakistan Rupee (USD/PKR) exchange rate is advancing mildly higher on Friday, snapping a three day losing streak. The pair settled -0% lower at 157.00 on Thursday. At 14:45 UTC, USD/PKR trades +0.05% at 157.07.

Across the week the Pakistan Rupee strengthened by 1% versus the US Dollar.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan, foreign currency reserves held by the central bank rose by 0.54% on a weekly basis. As from 26th February the foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP were $12,978.4 million, up $70 million compared with $12908.70 million. The rise in reserves came on the back of official inflows of government.

Oil prices surged to an almost 14 month high after OPEC unexpectedly kept oil output unchanged. At the start of the week expectations had been for the group of major oil producers to raise output by 1.5 million barrels per day.

The US Dollar is advancing across the board on Friday after the US non-farm payroll smashed forecasts. The US Dollar Index which measures the greenback versus its major peers now trades 0.5% on the day at 92.00 a three and a half month high.

The US  Labour Department’s non-farm payroll revealed that 379,000 new jobs were added in the US in February. This was well ahead of the 182,000 that analysts had forecast. January’s figure was also upwardly revised to 166,000 up from 49,000. The unemployment rate ticked lower once again to 6.2%, whilst wage growth held steady at 5.3%.

The strong rebound in the US jobs market in February is expected to be just the beginning. As the vaccine programme ramps up, governors and states will go easing covid restrictions over the coming weeks and month. As a result, the expectation is that these jobs numbers will continue improving through March and April and beyond.