FX reserves down by $233.5mn to stand at $14.94bn

June 16, 2022 (MLN): The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $233.5 million or 1.53% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $14.94 billion since July 19, 2019, during the week ended on June 10, 2022, compared to $15.17bn in the previous week, weekly data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday showed.

The data further revealed that reserves held by the central bank during the week dipped by $241mn or 2.61% WoW to clock in at the lowest level of $8.98bn since Nov 22, 2019, mainly due to external debt repayments.

On the other hand, the reserves of commercial banks inched up by $7.4mn or 0.12% WoW to $5.96bn.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is barely enough to cover 1.32 months of imports.

The ongoing chaos amidst melting foreign exchange reserves has further pushed the Pakistani rupee (PKR) to lose its value by 1.2 rupees in today’s interbank session as the local unit glided to PKR 207.67 against the US dollar.

To arrest the critical situation, the government is taking unpopular economic decisions to comply with IMF conditions so that the country could come out of the crisis.

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