KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves plunged $956 million on a weekly basis to $7.96 billion, central bank data released on Thursday showed.
Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13.72 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks clocked in at $5.76 billion.
“During the week ended on November 4, 2022, SBP’s reserves decreased by $956 million to $7,957.0 million due to external debt servicing,” said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) in a statement.
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“Major external debt repayments executed during the week include repayment of government’s commercial loans.”
The SBP further said that refinancing of these loans was in the process which would improve foreign exchange reserves in the coming weeks”.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that the SBP will receive $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in the ongoing month.
In a tweet, the finance minister shared that the AIIB board approved the funding as “co-financing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded BRACE program for Pakistan.”
“These Funds will be received by State Bank of Pakistan within November 2022,” he said.
The SBP also received $1.5 billion from ADB on October 26, 2022 as disbursement of loan for the government of Pakistan.
