The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) soared by over $850 million on a weekly basis according to data issued by the central bank on Thursday.
On December 22, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $7.757 billion, up $852.3 million compared to $6.904 billion on December 15. Without giving details of the exact source of the inflows, the central bank said the increase was mainly due to receipt of official GoP inflows.
Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $12.855 billion, up $787.3 million over the previous week. The net reserves held by banks stood at $5.098 billion, registering a decrease of $65 million during the week.
Last week, the central bank’s reserves went down by $136 million to fall below the $7 billion mark for the first time since July 14.
Last month, Caretaker Federal Minister for Finance Dr Shamshad Akhtar said the country would get financial assistance from various multilateral development banks once the first review of the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) is approved by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board.
Speaking to a private television channel, she said Pakistan would not only get $700 million from the fund but the SBA approval would also unlock financial assistance from other multilateral financial institutions.
The IMF’s Executive Board will meet on January 11 to consider the staff-level agreement on the first review under Pakistan’s SBA, however, multilateral inflows have already started to trickle in.
At the end we have to pay more with interest therefore its a bad news.