Foreign exchange: SBP’s reserves decrease 2%, amount to $16.463b

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased 2% on a weekly basis on June 3, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves decreased $344 million to $16,463 million compared to $16,807 million in the previous week. During the week, the SBP made payments of $374 million on account of external debt servicing and other official payments.

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $21,266.6 million while net reserves held by banks other than SBP amounted to $4,804 million. SBP-held foreign exchange reserves had increased 3.1% on a weekly basis on April 1 after the central bank received $978 million during the week from multilateral, bilateral and other official sources.

Two months ago, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP increased 3.5% on a weekly basis after it received $500 million from the IMF.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2016.

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