The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased by around 10 percent on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.
On April 14, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $4.433 billion, up $394 million compared to $4.038 billion on April 7.
In a statement, the central bank said that “the increase in reserves was mainly due to the receipt of $300 million of the Government of Pakistan commercial loan.”
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) recently approved the third and final disbursement of funds amounting to $300 million under its $1.3 billion arrangement for Pakistan.
Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $9.965 billion, up $400 million over the previous week. The net reserves held by banks stood at $5.532 billion, registering an increase of $6 million during the week.
According to Arif Habib Limited, the current reserves are enough for import cover of fewer than 0.97 months, a slight improvement from last week’s import cover of 0.88 months.
