KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $85 million to $10.8bn during the week ended on April 17.
According to the central bank’s weekly report, its reserves dropped to 10.8 billion dollars. The central bank attributed the decrease to government external debt payments of $145 million.
It said commercial banks’ holdings stood at $7.41 billion. The country’s net reserves were recorded at 17.3 billion dollars, SBP added.
“On April 20, the SBP received $1.39 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to address the economic impact of the Covid-19 shock,” the statement said and added, “These funds will be part of SBP’s weekly reserves data for April 24, to be released on April 30.”
Earlier on April 16, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) had recorded an increase of 252 million dollars in its foreign reserves in a week ending April 10.
The central bank, releasing its weekly reserves report, had stated its reserves stood at 10.97 billion dollars.
The report showed foreign liquidity held by commercial banks at 6.32 billion dollars. The country’s net reserves had been recorded at 17.29 billion dollars, according to the SBP report.
