Karachi: The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank up by USD 53 million, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan. As of October 29, 2021, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at USD 17,200 million, witnessed an increase of USD 53 million compared with USD 17,147 million in the previous week.
Current level of foreign reserves can service the imports of ~3 months.
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SBP Reserves decline By USD 1.6 billion
Overall liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country, including banks stood at USD 23,926 million. Reserves held by banks amounted to USD 6,726 million.
Since its peak of USD 20,145 million back in August 2021, the SBP foreign exchange reserves has decreased by USD 2,946 million.
On March 30, 2021, Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building the foreign exchange reserves.
It received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the IMF on July 9, 2019, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December 2019, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.
The reserves also jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China. In 2020, the SBP successfully made foreign debt repayment of over $1 billion on the maturity of Sukuk.
In December 2019, the foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $10 billion mark owing to inflows from multilateral lenders including $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
