Pakistan’s forex reserves fall $14.9m to $6.7b

KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by 0.2% on a week-on-week basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

According to the SBP data, the foreign reserves held by the central stood at $6,700 million, down $14.9 million as compared with $6,714.9 million on December 2. This is the lowest level of SBP-held reserves since January 2019.

The central bank didn’t give any reason for the decrease in reserves.

Meanwhile, the liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including the net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $12,570.2 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,870.2 million.

In a podcast on Dec 8, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad had asserted that all debt repayments were on track while the country’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to increase in second half of the current fiscal year.

Governor SBP noted that for the fiscal year 2023, around $33 billion were to be repaid to external stakeholders, including the Current Account Deficit (CAD) of $10 billion and $23 billion in loan repayments.

Out of the payable $23 billion external debt, Pakistan has already repaid more than $6 billion whereas as a bilateral loan of $4 billion has been rolled over with the cooperation of relevant countries.