KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the country deceased by $60 million to $10,305 million on a weekly basis, as compared to $10,365 million of the previous week.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan, foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank fell by 0.57%.
Between December 19 and 26, the SBP paid $197 million on account of external debt servicing and other official payments, of which $139 million was paid to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the stand-by agreement.
Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $14,944.7 million while net foreign reserves held by banks amounted to $4,639.8 million.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves witnessed a rapid rise in December. During the week ending on December 19, the SBP received $1,221 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources, which included $1,051 million received from the IMF. This resulted in a weekly increase of 10.9% in the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves.
Similarly, the central bank’s liquid foreign reserves increased 10.6% on a week-on-week basis at the end of the first week of December. The massive increase was a result of Pakistan getting $1 billion against the issuance of Sukuk bonds.
The SBP-held foreign exchange reserves increased three times in 2014. The rapid rise in foreign exchange reserves led to an appreciation of 4% in the rupee’s value against the dollar on a period-end basis after a gap of 11 years, according to Topline Securities.
