The country's foreign exchange reserves increased by $110 million to $15.159 billion during the week that ended on January 30. The State Bank Thursday reported that during the week under review its reserves rose to $10.358 billion from $10.249 billion of the previous week. The increase, a spokesman said, was on account of official inflows from the country's bilateral and multilateral foreign financers.
The reserves of the commercial banks were recorded at $4.8 billion during the week With a staff mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) having cleared Pakistan's fiscal and monetary policies under the Sixth Review of the Fund's $6.6 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF), the resource-constrained Pakistan is expecting the release of $518 million as soon as the Executive Board of the international lender approves the mission's recommendations.
The receipts under the EFF are believed to be used, masterly, for the servicing of the IMF's half-paid $8.3 billion Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). Besides planning to launch around $1 billion international bonds as a rare investment window for overseas Pakistanis, Islamabad also is eyeing part of over $1 billion Coalition Support Fund (CSF), the United States recently announced for Pakistan as war reimbursements.