Karachi  - The Pakistani rupee weakened on Monday to a record low against the US dollar amid rising import bills, dealers said.

The rupee hit 67 to the dollar in an unofficial open market versus 66.10/66.30 on Friday. In the official inter-bank market the rupee closed at 65.70/65.99 to the dollar.

Dealers said the way the central State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was playing a neutral role with no intervention to save the slumping rupee indicated it might be adopting a policy of "managed depreciation" policy.

The rupee has been down by over 6 per cent against the dollar during the last five months.

"There must be some logic in the mind of our economic managers to see this gradual decline in the rupee," said Nabeel Iqbal, marketing manager at Khanani and Kalia, Pakistan's largest foreign currency firm.

Iqbal said the only logic he saw was to boost exports on the back of cheap currency and in turn create liquidity in the market by the start of a new fiscal year (2008-09) from July 1.

"A cheaper rupee may make our goods attractive in the international markets and we will get more rupees per dollar which will boost local availability of the rupee," Iqbal said.

Economists have been accusing the central bank of printing too much money to satisfy domestic borrowing demand of the Pakistani government, which is facing a big shortfall in tax collections amid rising import and international oil and food prices.

Pakistan imports 85 per cent of its energy needs and is currently also facing an acute wheat shortage. (dpa)