Foreign exchange: SBP’s reserves increase 0.6%, amount to $18.299b

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased 0.6% on a weekly basis on December 23, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

The SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves increased $109 million to $18,299.4 million compared to $18,190.4 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 $23,286.0 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $4,986.6 million. The increase in SBP’s reserves is due to official inflows.

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, $502 million from the World Bank and $307 million from the ADB.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2016.

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