KARACHI: Pakistan has received foreign inflows amounting to $1 billion of Eurobond, issued by the federal government to build the foreign exchange reserves. With the arrival of these inflows, foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) surged to highest level of last four and half year.

Earlier this year, Pakistan was entered the international capital market for the sale of Eurobonds to build up the foreign exchange reserves. Accordingly, a multi-tranche transaction of 5-, 10- and 30-year Eurobonds was conducted and some $2.5 billion proceeds of the government against Eurobond issuance were arrived in April this year.

In order to further build up the country’s foreign exchange reserves, Pakistan decided to raise additional one billion debts through issuance of Eurobond. Accordingly, some $300 million were raised through sale of five year bond at 5.875 percent, $400 million against 10-year security paper at 7.125 percent and an amount of $300 million through 30-year Eurobonds at 8.450 percent.

The said amount was arrived on Wednesday and the State Bank has also confirmed that it has received proceeds of one billion dollars of Eurobond. With arrival of these inflows, the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves have reached $18.2 billion, which is the highest level since Jan 2017.

Although, the official statistics of Pakistan’s total liquid foreign currency reserves have not yet release by the SBP, however, as per estimates the country total liquid foreign currency reserves may cross $25 billion mark, if major debt serving not made during this week.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021