Foreign exchange: Reserves decline $82 million

KARACHI:

Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased 0.8% on a weekly basis on January 23, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves fell by $82 million to $10,249 million compared to $10,331 million in the previous week.

During the week, the SBP made payments of $143 million on account of external debt servicing and other official payments. No major inflow was recorded in the period. Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $15,063.9 million while net foreign reserves held by banks amounted to $4,815.2 million.

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves recorded a rapid rise in the last month of 2014 when the SBP received $1,221 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources.

This was preceded by another 10.6% weekly rise in the SBP’s liquid foreign reserves in the same month when Pakistan received $1 billion against the issuance of Sukuk. 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 30^th, 2015.

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