Pakistan rupee hits another all-time low; falls below 44 vs dirham

The Pakistani rupee continued its slide, hitting another lifetime low against the US dollar and the UAE dirham on Wednesday.

The Pakistani currency fell Rs3.2 to 162 against the greenback (44.1 against the UAE dirham) in the interbank trading on Wednesday morning. But it recovered later and was trading a bit higher. In the open market, it was trading at 160 versus dollar (43.8 vs dirham).

The rupee has been the worst performing currency in Asia, losing 33 per cent in the last one year and 16 per cent year-to-date. In the last one month alone, it lost more than 7.5 per cent.

The rupee has been consistently falling due to widening trade deficit and an agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund to allow the market mechanism to set the rate of Pakistani currency.

Pakistani currency is consistently weakening due to growing trade deficit, falling foreign exchange reserves and the central bank's inability to support the rupee due to dwindling reserves.