Foreign exchange: SBP reserves fall $221m to $17.8b

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank fell 1.22% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On July 23, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $17,829.8 million, down $221 million compared with $18,050.7 million recorded on July 16.

The central bank gave no reason for the decrease in reserves.

Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $24,875.5 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,045.7 million.

Earlier, Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds on March 30, 2021 by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building the foreign exchange reserves.

It received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2019, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December 2019, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.

The reserves also jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China. In 2020, 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).