The Foreign Exchange reserves of Pakistan fell by $157 million or 0.75 per cent to clock in at $20.679 billion, said the central bank on Thursday.
The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $20.836 billion in the previous week.
The reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased by $146 million to $13.527 billion due to external debt repayments. The reserves of commercial banks also reduced to $7.152 billion from $7.163 billion last week.
Earlier, Pakistan received inflows amounting to $2.5 billion on Thursday evening as proceeds of recently launched Eurobonds.
The central bank has confirmed on its Twitter account that SBP has received the government’s proceeds of $2.5 billion against Eurobond issuance, resulting in $16 billion surges in foreign exchange reserves.
After a gap of almost three years, Pakistan has entered the international capital market for Eurobonds trading. A multi-tranche transaction of 5-,10-, and 30- year Eurobonds was performed to build up the foreign exchange reserves.
During the past two years, Pakistan got almost $3 billion in foreign inflows and out of these, $2.5 billion from Eurobonds arrival on Thursday evening.
Besides, in the last week of March, International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave around $500 million to Pakistan as a loan under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for support.
As of April 2, 2021, SBP’s liquid foreign exchange reserves were $20.679 billion. With the addition of Eurobond proceeds, these foreign exchange reserves would likely cross the $23 billion mark.
