Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) significantly increased by $1.168 billion million on a weekly basis, clocking in at $10.702 billion as of September 27 to reach 2.5-year high, data released on Thursday showed.

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $15.983 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.281 billion.

The increase in the forex reserves came after the SBP last week received the first tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 760 million, equivalent to $1.03 billion, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This brings the SBP-held reserves to a 2.5-year high, as the dollar stockpile was last recorded above $10.7 billion back on April 16, 2022.

Last week, SBP foreign exchange reserves increased by $24 million.

The IMF inflow came after its Executive Board approved the 37-month, $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan last month.

The Pakistani authorities and the IMF team reached a staff-level agreement on the EFF in the amount equivalent to SDR 5,320 million (or about USD 7 billion) on July 12.