ISLAMABAD: After a mild decrease for the last couple of weeks, the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) witnessed an increase by $56 million on a weekly basis to settle at $7.7 billion as of September 15, data released on Thursday showed. In the earlier week, the central bank’s forex reserves were declined by $140 million.
The last couple of weeks, recorded a decrease in the reserves held by the central bank, mostly due to the release of a ban on imports and debt repayment. However, it was not silicified how the current increase occurred during the last week.
Pakistan’s Foreign Reserves
At present the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13.19 billion, including reserves held by commercial banks as $5.49 billion. Pakistan’s reserves reached near to $14bn in July this year after receiving the first tranche ($1.2 billion) from the IMF’s standby agreement, along with funds received from Saudi Arabia and UAE ($3bn combined). However, the following months witnessed a decrease due to import and debt repayments.
The country is expecting some flow from the international donors and the 2nd tranche of the IMF in November and ahead which would take the reserves to a further stable position.
