KARACHI: The country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves rose by $162 million during the last week. According to a weekly report issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, the total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country stood at $ 8.702 billion as of Feb 10, 2023 compared to $8.54 billion on Feb 3, 2023.

After declining $1.68 billion during the last three weeks, the SBP’s reserves increased by $ 276 million to $ 3.193 billion during the week under review. The SBP’s reserves can cover the import of some 20 days.

However, net foreign reserves held by commercial banks have declined for the last few weeks and hit $114 million mark during the week ended Feb 10, 2023. Net foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks declined to $ 5.509 billion at the end of last week against $5.623 billion a week earlier.

The country is striving to build the sliding foreign exchange reserves and recently negotiations with the IMF have been completed for the release of some one billion dollars of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023