The country's total liquid foreign exchange reserves declined sharply by $270 million during last week due to external debt servicing. According to State Bank of Pakistan's weekly report issued Thursday, the country's total liquid foreign exchange reserves stood at $23.344 billion as on December 2, 2016 down from $23.615 billion as on November 25, 2016. The SBP said the current decline in the reserves is on account of external debt payments.
During the week under review, reserves of the SBP and banks witnessed a downward trend, however, a major decrease was registered in the central bank's reserves. Reserves held by the SBP fell by $221.6 million to $18.353 billion at the end of the week compared to $18.575 billion a week earlier. Similarly, banks' foreign exchange reserves went down by $48.8 million to $4.991 billion at the end of the week.