The Pakistani Rupee struck a record low versus the US Dollar on Friday as flows out of the perceived riskier currency continued.
At 10:15 UTC, USD/PKR was trading at 165.5 on the open market as it eased back from the record high of 168.125 reached earlier in the session. The pair had started this week 10 Rupees lower at 158.2.
Check real time USD to PKR exchange rate
9.4 Million Job Losses Predicted In Pakistan
Fear is in the driving seat across financial markets on Friday. Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Imran Khan, had previously said that his county couldn’t afford a lock down as it would ruin the economy. However, he has performed a U – turn with parts of the country now closed as coronavirus cases escalate.
The Pakistani stock market has declined over 33% so far this month as investors shun risk. The Asian Development Bank has already warned that Pakistan’ s economy could lose up to $5 billion in the worst case scenario, of which $1.5 billion loss would be incurred from agriculture and mining sector, $1.94 billion in business and trade and $253.7 million in hotels and resuatrants. This could result in 9.4 million job losses.
US Consumer Confidence To Plunge
US Investors will look ahead to the release of US consumer confidence data later today. Analysts are expecting morale to have fallen to 90 on the University of Michigan index in March, down from 95.9 in the previous month.
Household sentiment lowers when consumers fear losing their job or when they have been laid off. Yesterday data revealed a record number of Americans filed a claim for unemployment benefit; initial jobless claims skyrocketed to 3.3 million in a week, eclipsing the 1.7 million forecast and the 281,000 from the previous week.
With a surge in the number of unemployed and the number of people who fear losing their job, there is a strong chance that US consumer confidence will be significantly lower than what analysts are forecasting.
The data comes as the number of coronavirus cases in the US passes 83,500. The US now has more cases than China had or Italy despite quarantine being in place. The death toll in the world largest economy is also rising.
The figures are unnerving investors who are moving back into the dollar across the board despite a $2 trillion relief package being approved by US Senate.