Foreign exchange: SBP reserves rise $19m to $12.9b

Foreign exchange: SBP reserves rise $19m to $12.9b

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 0.14% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On February 19, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $12,908.7 million, up $19 million compared with $12,889.7 million in the previous week. The central bank gave no reason for the increase in reserves.

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Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $20,041.6 million. Net reserves held by banks amounted to $7,132.9 million.

Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2019, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December 2019, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.

The reserves also jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China. In 2020, the SBP successfully made foreign debt repayment of over $1 billion on the maturity of Sukuk.

In December 2019, the foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $10 billion mark owing to inflows from multilateral lenders including $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

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