Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves declined to $17.79 billion in the week ending on September 10, as compared to $18.06 billion on September 3, the weekly statement of the central bank stated on Thursday.
Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) declined to $14.34 billion against $14.60 billion in the previous week and that with the commercial banks were at $3.45billion from $3.46 billion a week earlier.
“Routine debt servicing is the main cause of the drop in reserves,” a banking expert dealing with the central bank told APP.
Foreign exchange reserves hit a record $18.31 billion in the week ending July 30 but have eased due to scheduled debt repayments.
The reserves were boosted in June by inflows of $411 million, including a $191.9 million loan from the World Bank and another loan of $196.8 million from the Asian Development Bank.
Higher export proceeds and a record inflow of remittances have helped Pakistan’s forex reserves grow steadily. According to official data, remittances rose 38.57 per cent to $1.1 billion in the first month of the 2011/12 fiscal year (July-June), compared with $791.18 million in the same period last year. With additional input from APP and Reuters
Published in The Express Tribune, September 16th, 2011.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ