KARACHI: The country’s liquid forex reserves posted an increase of $431 million during last week, mainly due to inflows of Extended Fund Facility. According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) weekly forex report, the country’s forex reserves surged to $8.521 billion as on December 27, 2013 compared to $8.09 billion as on December 20, 2013.
During the week, the SBP’s liquid forex reserves increased by $464 million to $3.657 billion against $3.193 billion in the last week. The increase in the central bank reserves has been attributed to $558 million inflows from multilateral and bilateral sources, which included $554 million inflows received under the EFF from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and $4 million accounted for receipts from other multilateral institutions.
On account of external debt servicing and other official payments, the SBP has made payments of $169 million, of which $147 million was paid to the IMF as 25th instalment of the SBA, from its reserves during the week ending December 27, 2013. During the week under review, reserves held by banks registered a decline of $33.2 million to $4.864 billion as on December 27, 2013 down from $4.897 billion as on December 20, 2013.
