FX reserves fall by $733mn in a week

June 23, 2022 (MLN): The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country dropped by $733 million or 4.9% WoW to stand at the lowest level of $14.2 billion since Jan 18, 2019, during the week ended on June 17, 2022, compared to $14.94bn 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 $748mn or 8.3% WoW to clock in at the lowest level of $8.2bn since Oct 25, 2019, mainly due to external debt repayments.

On the other hand, the reserves of commercial banks inched up by $15mn or 0.3% WoW to $5.97bn.

Meanwhile, it is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is barely enough to cover 1.21 months of imports.

On the forex front, the Pak Rupee (PKR) managed to gain its ground by 4.7 rupees today against the US dollar and settled the day's trade at PKR 207.23 per USD, mainly on the back of positive news flow regarding the IMF tranche and the upcoming inflow of $2.3 billion from China.

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