FX reserves drop to $16.4bn, barely enough to finance 1.5 months of imports

May 12, 2022 (MLN): The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country decreased by $178 million or 1.1% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $16.376 billion since Dec 06, 2019, during the week ended on May 06, 2022, compared to $16.553 billion 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 $190 million or 1.8% WoW to clock in at the lowest level of $10.3 billion since June 19, 2020, mainly due to external debt payments.

On the contrary, the reserves of commercial banks went up by $13 million or 0.2% WoW to $6.05 billion.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is barely enough to cover 1.54 months of imports.

On the forex front, the rupee hit an all-time low of 191.77 per dollar today, losing around 1.7 rupees compared to yesterday's close and 34.22 rupees from Jul’21 to date.

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