Forex reserves down by $160 million in last week

Pakistan's total liquid foreign reserves witnessed a decrease of $160 million during the last week as compared to the previous stats on September 9, mainly due to external debt payment. According to State Bank of Pakistan's weekly foreign exchange reserve report issued on Thursday, Pakistan's total liquid foreign reserve stood at $22.698 billion on September 16, 2016 as compared to $22.858 billion on September 9, a week earlier.
During the week under review, SBP's liquid forex reserves witnessed declining trend, while reserves held by banks slightly increased. During the week, SBP made payments of US $239 million on account of external debt servicing. SBP's reserves stood at $17.657 billion at the end of the week as compared to $17.854 billion in the previous week, depicting a decline of $196.5 million. However, reserves held by banks surged by $36 million to $5.041 billion at end of the week.