Foreign exchange: SBP reserves rise $177m to $15.8b
KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 1.13% every week, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday.
On May 7, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $15,774.5 million, up to $177 million compared with $15,597.9 million in the previous week.
According to the central bank, the rise came on the back of official inflows of the government.
The country holds overall liquid foreign currency reserves. Including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP stood at $22,910.3 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,135.8 million.
Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds on March 30, 2021. Offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building foreign exchange reserves.
Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (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 $10 billion. Mark owing to inflows from multilateral lenders, including $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
