Following debt payments, the country's liquid foreign exchange reserves slipped below $14 billion at the end of last week. According to State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) weekly report issued on Thursday, the country's total liquid forex reserves stood at $13.926 billion as on August 15, 2014 compared to $14.264 billion as on August 8, 2014, depicting a decline of $338 million.
During last week, the SBP's liquid forex reserves decreased by $285 million to $8.903 million compared with $9.188 million previous week. The decrease in the SBP reserves has been attributed mainly to payments of $295 million on account of external debt servicing, which includes $147 million paid to the IMF under the Stand-by Arrangement. In addition, reserves held by banks posted a $53 million decline to $5.023 billion at the end of the week compared to $5.076 billion a week earlier.