May 26, 2022 (MLN): The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $11 million or 0.1% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $16.1 billion since Dec 06, 2019, during the week ended on May 20, 2022, compared to $16.16bn 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 $75mn or 0.7% WoW to clock in at the lowest level of $10.1bn since June 19, 2020, mainly due to external debt payments.
On the contrary, the reserves of commercial banks went up by $64mn or 1.1% WoW to $6bn.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is barely enough to cover 1.48 months of imports.
On the forex front, the continuous decline in foreign exchange reserves has created a strong spell of currency depreciation as the local unit has weakened by 8.1% MTD to stand at PKR 202.01 per USD.
