Week-on-week: SBP’s reserves rise 3.4%, now stand at $13.535b

Increase mainly attribute to receipts including IMF’s loan

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased 3.4% on a weekly basis on July 3, according to data released by the central bank on Thursday.

SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves increased $447 million to $13,535 million compared to $13,088 million in the previous week. The increase in reserves is mainly attributed to the receipt of $514 million from multilateral and bilateral sources, which included $506 million from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility.



The SBP also made payments of $72 million on account of external debt servicing and other official payments during the week. Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $18,714.6 million while net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,179.4 million.

Foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP had gone up 6.2% in the preceding week as well. In April, foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP had increased 5.1% because of the receipt of HBL’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 got $717 million on account of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

Published in The Express Tribune, July 10^th,  2015.

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