SBP reserves rise $558m to $12.7b

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 4.57% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On November 6, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $12,740.5 million, up $558 million compared with $12,182.6 million in the previous week.

According to the central bank, the increase in reserves was mainly attributed to the receipt of $500 million as government loan proceeds. Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $19,906.9 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,166.4 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 had 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 Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2020.

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