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KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves dropped a massive $923 million to just $3.7 billion, data released on Thursday showed.
This is the lowest level of SBP-held reserves since February 2014.
Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $9.45 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.77 billion.
The SBP’s foreign exchange holdings increased by $258 million last week, reaching $4.6 billion. This was the first increase after eight weeks.
The central bank reserves, which were around $18 billion at the beginning of 2022 but have significantly decreased, highlight the pressing need for Pakistan to finish the next assessment of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program.
On Thursday, the IMF said that its mission will visit Islamabad at the end of this month to continue discussions under the ninth Extended Fund Facility (EFF) review.
Talks on the ninth review have been stalled over prior conditions of the Washington-based lender.
Although the country is facing a serious crisis of foreign exchange reserves, it is meeting international financial obligations to avoid default.
On Thursday, Pakistani rupee registered historic depreciation against the US dollar in the interbank market, settling with a loss of 9.6 percent in a single session as Pakistan moved to fulfill IMF condition of a ‘free-float exchange rate’.
As per the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the rupee closed at 255.43 against the US dollar, a depreciation of 9.61% or Rs24.54.
