Inflows of $505m push up reserves

Karachi: Country’s foreign exchange reserves rose by $505 million during the week ending on Dec 13 as inflows from three sources helped build reserves which had earlier fallen below $3 billion.

The Central Bank reported on Thursday that the increase in reserves was mainly due to $430m inflows from multilateral and bilateral sources which include $144m from Department for International Development (DFID), $137m from Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and $149m accounted for receipts from other multilateral institutions.

With the inclusion of about $505m, reserves of the State Bank rose to $3.5bn from $2.9bn while the country’s reserves went up to $8.5bn from $8 billion.

Holdings of private banks slightly slipped to $5,058.5 million.

The State Bank said it paid $100 million for debt servicing during the same week. The SBP expects more inflows (around $550m) from the IMF in the coming days.