Forex: Currency reserves fall to $12.8 billion
Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell to $7.861 billion from $8.227 billion a week earlier.
Reuters
March 07, 2013
Less than a minute read
KARACHI:
Foreign exchange reserves dropped to $12.804 billion in the week ending March 1 from $13.185 billion in the previous week, the central bank said on Thursday. Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell to $7.861 billion from $8.227 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks decreased to $4.943 billion from $4.958 billion. Pakistan repaid $145 million to the International Monetary Fund in start of February, with another payment worth $392 million made on February 26. Heavy debt repayments to the IMF have been putting a dent in the central bank’s reserves, which have declined by nearly 20% in the current fiscal year. Meanwhile, exports and record remittances have supported Pakistan’s reserves. Remittances from Pakistanis abroad rose 10.36 percent to $8.20 billion in the first seven months, July to January, of the 2012/13 fiscal year, from $7.43 billion in the same period last year.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 8th, 2013.
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