Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose by 70 million dollars to 11.84 billion dollars in the week that ended on June 27, compared with 11.77 billion dollars the previous week, a central bank spokesman said on Thursday. The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves edged up to 8.55 billion dollars from 8.45 billion dollars a week earlier.
Reserves held by commercial banks fell to 3.29 billion dollars from the previous week's 3.32 billion dollars, the spokesman said. Foreign reserves hit a record high of 16.5 billion dollars in October 2007, but fell steadily to 6.6 billion dollars by November last year, largely because of a soaring import bill. Pakistan agreed in November to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) emergency loan package of 7.6 billion dollars to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.