Foreign exchange reserves down by $132m

KARACHI: The country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves dropped by $132 million during the last week.

According to State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) weekly foreign exchange reserves report issued on Thursday, total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at $15.611 billion as of July 7, 2022 compared to $15.742 billion as of June 30, 2022.

During the week under review, SBP’s reserves decreased by $99 million due to external debt payments. SBP’s foreign exchange reserves declined to $9.717 billion by the end of the last week down from $9.816 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks also slide by $33 million to $5.893 billion.

It may be mentioned here that federal government is making efforts to boost the sliding foreign exchange reserves of the country. Recently, Pakistan received some $2.5 billion inflows from China, while on Thursday IMF and Pakistan reached a staff level agreement on policies to complete the combined 7th and 8th reviews of Pakistan’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF). Subject to Board approval, this agreement will release $1,177 million (SDR 894 million) to Pakistan, bringing the total disbursements under the program to about $4.2 billion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022