Foreign exchange: SBP’s reserves fall below $19 billion

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased 0.95% on a weekly basis on November 18, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

The SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves dropped $180.2 million to $18,846.9 million compared to $19,027.1 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 $23,865.2 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,018.3 million. The decrease in SBP’s reserves was mainly due to payments on account of external debt servicing. More than a month ago, the central bank had made payments of $60 million.

Over three months ago, the SBP-held reserves had gone up 7.8% on a weekly basis after the bank received $1,340 million from multilateral, bilateral and other official sources including $501 million from the IMF.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 25^th, 2016.

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