Forex reserves decline by $24 million

The country's foreign exchange reserves plunged by $24 million during the last week due to slow foreign inflows and huge payments. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday said that the country's foreign reserves have declined to $16.393 billion during the week ended December 18, 2010, as against $16.417 billion a week earlier.
The major decline has witnessed in the reserves held by SBP, while reserves held by banks showed a slight increase. The reserves held by SBP declined by $62 million to 12.631 billion during the last week, on December 11, 2010, the reserves totalled $12.693 billion. However, reserves held by banks maintained the increasing trend and went up by $38 million during the last week. After the current surge, banks' overall reserves rose to $3.762 billion as compared to $3.724 billion a week earlier.