Foreign exchange: SBP reserves rise $95m to $12.8b

Increase comes on back of $121m proceeds from ADB

KARACHI:

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased 0.74% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On September 4, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $12,807.8 million, up $95 million compared with $12,712.7 million in the previous week.

The central bank attributed the increase to proceeds worth $121 million received from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $19,961.3 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,153.5 million.

Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9 last year, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.

Previously, the reserves jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China.

A few months ago, the SBP successfully made foreign debt repayment of over $1 billion on the maturity of Sukuk.

In December 2019, the foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $10-billion mark owing to inflows from multilateral lenders including $1.3 billion from the ADB.