Forex reserves fall by $14.9m at $6.7b

State Bank did not give any reason for decrease in reserves

KARACHI:

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank fell by 0.2% on a week-on-week basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On December 9, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $6,700 million, down $14.9 million as compared with $6,714.9 million on December 2.

The central bank didn’t give any reason for the decrease in reserves and only said that the “SBP’s reserves did not record any major change during the week ended on December 9, 2022”.

Overall, the liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including the net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $12,570.2 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,870.2 million.

In the week ended on August 27, 2021, the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank soared to an all-time high of $20.15 billion after Pakistan received the general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $2.751 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2022.

Like Business on Facebook, follow @TribuneBiz on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.