Forex: Reserves go down 0.3% on weekly basis

State Bank pays $63m for external debt servicing

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased 0.3% on a weekly basis on May 15, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves decreased by $38 million to $12,512 million compared to $12,550 million in the previous week. The SBP made payments of $63 million on account of external debt servicing during the week under consideration. No major inflow was recorded during the week, the SBP said.

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $17,749.1 million while net foreign reserves held by banks amounted to $5,237.4 million.



Four weeks ago, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP increased 5.1% because of the receipt of Habib Bank’s privatisation proceeds.

Reserves went up by almost 4% in April following the receipt of $538 million from multilateral, bilateral and other sources, including $498 million from the IMF. They increased significantly in February when the SBP received $717 million on account of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves also 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 a 10.6% weekly rise in SBP’s liquid foreign reserves in the same month when the country received $1 billion against the issuance of Sukuk.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd,  2015.

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