The rupee slid . per cent to a record low of Rs against the dollar in the interbank market on Tuesday . However market sources said the dollar was trading higher than the official rate . The previous government saved up to bn in the fiscal year by slashing imports which helped bring down the current account deficit to .
bn from .bn a year ago . Bankers having no exact idea how many goods are in the backlog and how much dollars are needed to get them cleared from the ports said that up to . bn could be required to clear the backlog . The import bill in July was .bn compared to .
.bn in June reflecting an increase of .bn . However bankers said that opening letters of credit LCs was still a problem for importers as banks are responsible for arranging dollars before opening such letters . The State Bank was not ready to spend from its reserves amid debt servicing .
Pakistan needs bn for debt servicing in the current fiscal year. It hopes that the exchange rate would be stable once the backlog is clear. It is not possible for all banks to open LCs for imports a senior banker said. Practically it would not be possible for banks to opened LCs .
The ECAP reported the dollar rate at Rs on Tuesday showed an overnight increase of Rs . The grey market rate at £ on Tuesday. The greymarket rate is Rs to Rs per dollar was Rs on Monday. The ECap reported the grey market was at Rs . to Rs on August 30.
The green market rate is £ to Rs to £ per dollar. The red market rate was £ to £ to $100 per dollar . The green rate was Rs to $50.50 per dollar to $40,000.
