The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank decreased by $59 million on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.
On September 22, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $7.637 billion, down $59 million compared to $7.695 billion on September 15. In a statement, the central bank said that the decline in reserves was on account of debt repayments.
Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $13.162 billion, down $25 million over the previous week. The net reserves held by banks stood at $5.525 billion, registering an increase of $34 million during the week.
According to Arif Habib Limited, the current reserves are enough for import cover of 1.6 months. The reserves held by SBP have fallen by over $1 billion since July 14 when reserves stood at $8.727 billion.
In a statement today, Interim Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar said that the government has set a target of taking the SBP reserves to $12 billion by June 2024. Last week, the central bank’s reserves broke the streak of four consecutive declines to increase by $56 million.
