Foreign exchange reserves diminished by $98Mn, placed at $7.68 Billion

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank continues to show downward trend for the 11th consecutive week as they knock down 1.26% on a weekly basis, according to data revealed on Thursday.

The continuous downward trend elevates apprehension about Pakistan’s capability to meet up its financing necessities as the reserves have fallen very much below the $8-billion amount.

However, the government has declared the previous month that it had administer to secure a financial package of $6 billion from Saudi Arabia, but the impact of such financial aid is still awaited.

According to details, on November 2, the foreign currency reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) were documented at $7,678.9 million, down $98 million as compared to $7,776.9 million in the preceding week.

It is observed that the decline was accredited to payments on account of external debt.

Furthermore, liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, consisting net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, positioned at $14,068.1 million. Also, net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,389.2 million.

Earlier, the reserves slipped to $9.06 billion, due to which central bank was forced to depreciate Pakistani rupee particularly for the fourth time since December 2017.

However, as per April 2018 data, the SBP’s reserves augmented $593 million because of official inflows. A few months ago, the reserves surged due to official inflows including $622 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) & $106 million from the World Bank.

SBP earlier, also obtained $350 million under the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).

In January, SBP made a $500-million loan reimbursement to the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), China.