SCRAs decline to $374 million

Balances in Special Convertible Rupee Accounts (SCRAs) dipped to 3-month low at $374 million as on April 18. This was revealed in the latest up-date of economic data.
Three months ago, they stood at $370 million. Ever since January 19, balances in SCRAs have been surging consistently first to $416 million on January 27, then to $445 million on February 16 and then to the all-time high record of $472 million at the end of February.
Balances in these accounts started declining thereafter and never bounced back to the record level though there were numerous spells of short-lived retrievals. It is worth recalling on November 1, 2005 when the SBP started daily monitoring of SCRAs, balances in these accounts stood at a rather low level of $204 million.
Between February 28 and April 18, USA withdrew over $45 million, UK, $21 million; Hong Kong, $16.8 million; Switzerland, $16 million; and Bahrain, $10.2 million while Luxembourg also withdrew a negligible amount.
Despite these withdrawals, USA, UK, Hong Kong and Bahrain continue to hold the largest balances in their SCRAs amounting to $319 million (including $20.5 million brought in during April so far), $33.7 million (including $4.2 million brought in during April), $26.6 million (after adjusting $2.2 million withdrawn during April so far) and $21.6 million (after adjusting $10.2 million withdrawn during April), respectively.
During the same period, UAE brought in about $8 million, BV $3.3 million while Oman and Singapore also brought in about $0.1 million each. Most withdrawals in the case of USA and UK occurred during March. However, since about the end of March, investors from these two countries were bolstering their accounts during the ensuing month so far.
Balances in SCRAs of Bahrain started swelling during February and March to reach their highest of $31.8 million on March 21. Thereafter balances dipped to $21.7 million after adjusting withdrawals of $10 million taking place on April 10 and then further to $21.5 million on April 18.
Major fresh arrivals in the case of UAE amounting to some $50 million came in during March while major withdrawals occurred during April with credit balances converting into a debit balance of $5 million on April 18.