January 05, 2023 (MLN): Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dropped by $245 million to $5.57 billion during the week ended on December 30, 2022, according to the data released by the central bank on Thursday.
The critical position of foreign exchange reserves is attributed to external debt payment.
Reserves held by the commercial bank decreased by $39.3mn to $5.85bn.
Meanwhile, the total reserves held by the country shrank by $ 284.7mn to $11.42bn.
It is important to note that, the current level of foreign currency reserves is barely enough to cover 1.08 months of import bill.
To note, foreign exchange reserves went down by $1.3bn in 18 months.
On July 02, 2021 the reserves held by the commercial banks were around $7.18bn but currently these reserves are stood at $5.88bn as of December 23, which is down by 18.11%.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar during a news conference said, “Our foreign exchange reserves by end-June would be much better than you can think”, according to media reports.
