SBP reserves soar to highest since 2017

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Wednesday it has received US$1.0 billion proceeds of the government’s recent Eurobond tap issue. 

In a statement posted on its official Twitter handle, the central bank said: “SBP has received US$1.0bn proceeds of the government’s tap offering of its recently issued Euro Bond.”

Accordingly, State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves, as of July 13, have reached $18.2bn, which is the highest level since Jan 2017, it added.

#SBP has received US$1.0bn proceeds of the government’s tap offering of its recently issued Euro Bond. Accordingly, SBP’s FX reserves, as on 13Jul21, have reached US$18.2bn, which is the highest level since Jan 2017.

— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) July 14, 2021

On April 19, the State Bank of Pakistan had received the proceeds of the government’s $2.5 billion eurobond issuance in its account. “SBP has received the proceeds of government’s US$2.5bn Euro Bond issuance in its account. As a result, SBP’s FX reserves closed above US$16bn today, their highest level since July 2017,” it had tweeted.

In March, the country rolled out three separate eurobonds in the international market with having a time frame between 5 years to 30 years and an interest rate ranging between six percent to 8.87 percent.

The five-year eurobond rolled out with an interest rate of six per cent was able to fetch US$1 billion while another bond for a duration of 10 years with an interest rate of 7.73 percent was able to yield US$1 billion.