KARACHI: The country’s total foreign exchange reserves sharply declined by $ 827 million during the last one week due to external debt servicing.

According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) weekly foreign exchange reserves report issued on Thursday, the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $ 14.415 billion as of July 22, 2022 compared to $ 15.242 billion as of July 15, 2022.

During the week under review, SBP’s reserves decreased by $ 754 million to $ 8.575 billion due to external debt and other payments. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks also dropped by $ 73.4 million to $ 5.839 billion at the end of the last week down from $5.913 billion a week earlier.

Presently, the country is facing a serious crisis of foreign exchange reserves and seeking inflows from the IMF and other friendly countries. Last month, the country received $2.5 billion inflows from China as a soft loan.

The federal government is also negotiating with the IMF for release of tranche of Extended Fund Facility (EFF). In the second week of July, IMF and the Pakistani authorities reached a staff level agreement on policies to complete the combined 7th and 8th reviews of (EFF).

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022