Forex: Country’s reserves fall to $8.168 billion
Reserves held by the SBP decreased to $3.322 billion against $3.467 billion a week earlier. CRETAIVE COMMONS
Foreign exchange reserves held by the country decreased to $8.1684 billion during the week ending January 17, compared to $8.3 billion the previous week, according to data provided by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
Reserves held by the SBP decreased to $3.322 billion against $3.467 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks fell to $4.846 billion as compared to $4.849 billion a week earlier.
The decrease in SBP’s reserves is partly attributed to $59 million paid on account of external debt servicing and other official payments.
During the week, there was no significant inflow from multilateral and bilateral sources.
Pakistan made its last payment of $109 million to the IMF on December 30, 2013. Overseas Pakistanis remitted $5.275 billion between July-October this fiscal year.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.