Foreign exchange: SBP’s reserves total $11,759m

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $16,818.4 million

KARACHI:

Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased 1.2% on a weekly basis on April 10, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves increased $142 million to $11,759 million compared to $11,617 million in the previous week.

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $16,818.4 million while net foreign reserves held by banks amounted to $ 5,059.7 million.

Reserves went up by almost 4% last week following the receipt of $538 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources, including $498 million received from the IMF.

They increased significantly in February when the SBP received $717 million on account of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves witnessed a rapid rise in the last month of 2014 when the SBP received $1,221 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources. This was preceded by another 10.6% weekly rise in SBP’s liquid foreign reserves in the same month when Pakistan received $1 billion against the issuance of Sukuk bonds.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2015.