Alarm bells: Pakistan's forex reserves plunge to lowest since Oct 2019

KARACHI: Owing to increasing current account and trade deficits, higher external debt payments, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped to their lowest level since October 2019, the State Bank of Pakistan data showed Thursday.

Sharing a break-up of the foreign reserves position, the central bank said that the reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stand at $ $7.83 billion.

“During the week ended on 05-Aug-2022, SBP’s reserves decreased by US$ 555 million to US$ 7,830.3 million due to external debt payments,” the central bank said in a statement.

According to the central bank, the overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $13.56 billion. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $$5.73 billion.

It is worth mentioning here that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had confirmed that Pakistan has achieved all the set targets for the revival of Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.

Exclusively talking to ARY News, International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) resident representative in Islamabad, Esther Perez Ruiz had said Pakistan has achieved all the financial targets set by the fund and the last action was accomplished on July 31 by extending levy on petrol.

Ruiz said the 7th and 8th reviews have been completed and the IMF Executive Board will meet in the third week of August.

Meanwhile, COAS Bajwa had been playing his role to take Pakistan out of the economic crunch situation as recently he had approached Saudi Arabia, UAE, China and other friendly countries for the financial assistance.

Last week, COAS General Qamar Javed Bajwa has telephoned the authorities of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia to discuss the IMF programme.

UAE and Saudi Arabia’s authorities have assured COAS Bajwa of their full support for the early disposal of $1.2bn loan tranche.