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KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $278 million to $8.35 billion as of September 16, 2022, according to SBP data released on Thursday.
According to the Central Bank, total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $14.07 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks amounted to $5.72 billion.
Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has confirmed rollover of $3bn deposit maturing on 5Dec22 for one year. Deposit is placed with SBP and is part of its forex reserves. This reflects continuing strong and special relationship between KSA and Pakistan. Old PR https://t.co/YvQ9VXPq0x
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) September 18, 2022
While giving a breakup of the foreign reserves position, the SBP said it currently holds reserves of US$ 8.346 billion as compared to US$ 5.723 billion held by commercial banks.
It said that during the week ended on September 16, the SBP reserves decreased by US$ 278 million to US$ 8,346.4 million due to external debt repayment.
SBP’s reserves increased earlier this month as a result of the central bank receiving the $1.2 billion tranche from the IMF (IMF).
Later, the Saudi Development Fund also extended a deposit with the SBP for $3 billion that was scheduled to expire in December 2022. However, as the money was already a part of SBP’s reserves, this move was not intended to increase foreign exchange.
Pakistan has been frantically seeking dollar inflows to meet its balance-of-payments needs as the outflow of dollars have put the local currency under tremendous strain.
The rupee experienced its worst monthly performance in July in more than 50 years due to significant pressure on the currency market brought on by a dearth of reserves. Since the investment anticipated from friendly nations has not yet materialized, the local currency is currently hovering close to its all-time low.
