Foreign exchange: SBP reserves fall $415m to $18.15b

Decrease comes on back of external debt repayment

KARACHI:

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank fell 2.23% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On December 17, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $18,153.7 million, down $415 million compared with $18,568.3 million on December 10.

According to the central bank, the decrease came mainly due to external debt repayment.

Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $24,633 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,479.3 million.

Earlier in the week ended on August 27, the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank soared to an all-time high of $20.15 billion after Pakistan received general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $2,751.8 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.

On March 30, 2021, Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds 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 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).