The foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) witnessed substantial outflows of $869 million in the week that ended on March 18, 2022, depicting a 5.49 percent decline on a week-on-week basis.
The SBP weekly report released on Thursday revealed that the country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves went down by $843.7 million (-3.78%) on March 18, 2022, to $21.44 billion, compared to $22.28 billion in the previous week. The SBP reserves decreased by $869.2 million to $14.96 billion, compared to $15.83 billion a week earlier.
Meanwhile, the net foreign reserves held by the commercial banks stood at $6.4 billion, showing an increase of $25.5 million on a weekly basis.
The decline in foreign exchange is attributed to the payment against debt servicing to various lenders and other payments.
On the flip side, the Pakistani Rupee (PKR) halted losses against the US Dollar on the interbank close on Thursday. Conversely, it lost 32 paisas against the Canadian Dollar (CAD), 38 paisas against the Pound Sterling (GBP), and Rs. 1.31 against the Australian Dollar (AUD).
