Net reserves with the State Bank of Pakistan were $5.365 billion while banks had reserves of $4.706 billion. ILLUSTRATION: JAMAL KHURSHID
Foreign exchange reserves of the country crossed the threshold of $10 billion on March 31, prompting the PML-N government to take credit of boosting the reserves and giving a solid foundation to the economy.
“Total liquid reserves stood at $10.072 billion. Net reserves with the State Bank of Pakistan were $5.365 billion while banks had reserves of $4.706 billion,” said a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance here on Tuesday.
After repaying the power sector’s circular debt of up to Rs500 billion and strengthening the value of the rupee, the government met yet another commitment by shoring up foreign currency reserves to a comfortable level of $10 billion, the statement quoted Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as saying.
He stressed that a solid foundation for economic development had been laid and the building of foreign reserves would bring stability and strengthen the economy.
“Pakistan has an encouraging macroeconomic framework, which will enhance confidence of foreign investors, the international community and institutions in energy and infrastructure projects of the country,” he said.
IMF installment
Later, the State Bank of Pakistan announced that the country paid on Tuesday the 30th installment under the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) standby arrangement amounting to $109 million.
With payment of the fresh installment, Pakistan to date had repaid $7.010 billion to the IMF since July 2011. Of this amount, $6.066 billion was under the standby facility, said the central bank in a press release.
(with additional input from our Karachi correspondent)
Published in The Express Tribune, April 2nd, 2014.
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@Pakistani student: Sri Lanka has a much higher per capita income than all the other countries you mentioned.
Reserves are measured by comparing them to imports not as the nominal figure. So $10billion or $300 billion is not important. What is important is how many months of import cover you have and that is different from country to country.
We are going through a BOP crisis. India isn't. India let its currency depreciate. We strive to keep it high so that our politicians and people can boast about it. In the end what happens is that our import bill balloons and we have to go seeking bail outs from IFIs.
reallly only $10 & govt is celebrating....So how can we compete with India which has $300 forex reserves & other countries of BRICs....with this small amount of forex we can only stand with countries like Bangladesh, sri lanka,Nepal..etc