Foreign exchange: SBP reserves rise $188m to $13.29b

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 1.43% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On December 4, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $13,298.5 million, up $188 million compared with $13,110.9 million in the previous week.

The central bank said that during the week ended December 4, 2020, the SBP received $359 million from multilateral/ bilateral sources including $307 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

“After accounting for external debt repayments, the SBP reserves increased by $188 million to $13,298.5 million,” it added.

Overall, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $20,402.4 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,103.9 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 ADB.