Debt servicing: foreign reserves decline by $273 million: SBP

Pakistan's liquid foreign reserves fell by 273 million dollars to reach below 14 billion dollars during the last week because of debt servicing. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday reported that the country's total foreign reserves declined to 13.99 billion dollars as on June 27, 2014 down from 14.263 billion dollars as on June 20, 2014.
During the week ending June 27, 2014, reserves held by SBP decreased by 157 million dollars to 9.033 million dollars compared to 9.19 million dollars in the previous week. During the period under review, SBP has paid 249 million dollars from its forex reserves on account of external debt servicing and other financial payments.
Some 148 million dollars were paid to International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a tranche of Stand-Bu Arrangement (SBA) loan. While, during the last week, SBP received inflows amounting 98 million dollars from multilateral and bilateral sources. Meanwhile, reserves held by banks posted a decline of 117 million dollars to reach below five billion dollars. Banks' forex reserve declined to 4.957 million dollars as on June 27, 2014 compared to 5.074 billion dollars as on June 20, 2014.