July 7, 2022 (MLN): The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dipped by $453 million or 2.8% WoW to stand at $15.7bn during the week ended on June 30, 2022, compared to $16.19bn 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 plunged by $493mn or 4.8% WoW to clock in at $9.8bn, mainly due to external debt repayments. On June 24, SBP reserves witnessed an increase of $2.07bn after proceeds of the CDB loan amounting to RMB 15 billion ($2.3 billion) were received by SBP.
On the other hand, the reserves of commercial banks inched up by $40mn or 0.7% WoW to $5.9bn.
Meanwhile, it is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is enough to cover 1.42 months of imports.
On the forex front, the Pakistani rupee (PKR) managed to gain 8 paisa against the US dollar in today's interbank session as the currency settled the trade at 207.91 per USD on Thursday, compared to yesterday's closing of PKR 207.99 per USD.
