KARACHI: Dollar further decreased against the rupee in the inter-bank market, depreciating by Rs2.25, on Thursday. The greenback was being traded at Rs216.25 in the early morning trade.

Currency experts told Aaj News that a slide was witnessed in dollar value after Pakistan received the first tranche of the loan amount from the International Monetary Fund.

The international lender approved the revival of Pakistan’s extended fund facility, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced in a tweet on Monday after the country met all the prior actions to win the bailout package.

The State Bank of Pakistan in a series of tweets on Wednesday said that it received proceeds of $1.16 billion (equivalent to SDR 894 million) after the IMF executive board completed the combined seventh and eighth reviews under the EFF for Pakistan.

“This will help improve SBP’s foreign exchange reserves and will also facilitate realization of other planned inflows from multilateral and bilateral sources,” it said,

Last month, Pakistan received the letter of intent (the document outlining the general plans of an agreement) from the International Monetary Fund.

Sources had earlier told that the government has completed most of the prior conditions, including raising electricity prices and taxes. They added that the government working on bringing the mini-budget in order to meet the IMF’s requirements.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has described the resumption of the loan programme as “a major step forward” in the government’s efforts to put the “economy back on track”.

“It is [the] outcome of an excellent team effort. I commend Finance Minister Miftah Ismail & his team and other stakeholders for their hard work,” he had said in a tweet.