The foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan have dropped 0.16% on a weekly basis. The decline in reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan was reported in the data released by the central bank on Thursday.
The foreign currency reserves were recorded at $19,138.4 million on October 8, down by $31 million in comparison with $19,169.1 million on October 1.
SBP did not provide any specific reason behind the drop in the reserves.
The total liquid foreign currency reserves held by Pakistan, comprising of net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $25,969.4 million. Net reserves held by banks were worth $6,831 million.
During the week that ended on August 27, the foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $20.15 billion after the country received a general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) amounting to $2,751.8 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.
On March 30, 2021, $2.5 billion were borrowed by Pakistan via Eurobonds by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders for the purpose of building the foreign exchange reserves.
The first loan tranche from the IMF was received on July 9, 2019, which was worth $991.4 million. The second tranche of nearly $454 million was received in late December of 2029. Both loans helped improve the reserves significantly.
The reserves also spiked as a result of the $2.5 billion received in inflows from China. The central bank repaid over $1 billion of foreign debt on the maturity of Sukuk in 2020.
The foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $10 billion mark in December 2019 owing to inflows from multilateral lenders which also included $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
