KARACHI, Jan 8: Currency dealers on Tuesday said the ‘exchange game’ had gone out of the State Bank’s control as the central bank was avoiding offering its reserves to grab the exchange rate imbalances.

The rupee has been losing an average 15 to 20 paisa on daily basis against the US dollar reflecting poor economic performance of the country.

Interestingly, the greenback was the biggest loser in 2007 against the nine major currencies of the world including the euro, Canadian dollar and Pound Sterling and has yet not been able to restore its value in the global currency markets.

Dealers said the short supply and massive dollar buying by the importers had sharply widened the gap between bid and offer prices indicating uncertainty in the dollar-rupee exchange parity.

“The bid and offer price gap was just one or two paisa a couple of weeks ago,” said a currency dealer, adding that this reflected the lack of confidence of the market on the rupee.

For the last seven years the State Bank has been a major player in the exchange market and used to pump dollars to bring stability, but the recent decline in the rupee value against the dollar had failed to prompt any rescue operation by the SBP.

“The central bank may offer $150 to $200 million to bail out the falling rupee, but there is no guarantee that this injection will work for more than one or two days,” said a dealer.

The SBP reserves are already declining due to huge payment of oil import bills. Dealers said the dollar demand was so high that market would eat up the entire reserves of the SBP if it starts selling them into the market.

The rupee has recently hit the six-year low against the greenback, while the dealer said the dollar would soon touch Rs63.

The dealers were of the view that unless political scenario did not change with clear sign of stability, the rupee would remain under pressure.

However, they also maintained that the record high oil price was another major factor for this huge dollar demand. The SBP, which makes 70 per cent oil import payments, has been buying dollars from the market to keep its reserves intact.