Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves down by $328 million

State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on April 28, revealed that the central bank’s foreign exchange reserves fell by 3 per cent on a weekly basis.

The central bank’s foreign currency reserves were $10,558.2 million on April 23, a $328 million decrease from the previous day’s total of $10,885.7 million. according to the SBP, this decline was caused by external debt and other payments.

Pakistan’s total liquid foreign currency reserves, comprising net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, were $16,668.2 million. Banks held a total of $6,110 million in net reserves.

SBP’s foreign exchange reserves reached an all-time high of $20.15 billion in the week ending August 27, 2021, after Pakistan received a general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $2,751.8 million from the IMF on August 24.

Pakistan bought $2.5 billion using Eurobonds on March 30, 2021, by offering attractive interest rates to lenders in order to enhance foreign exchange reserves.

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On July 9, 2019, it received the first loan amount of $991.4 million from the IMF, which helped to boost reserves. The IMF released the second loan tranche of approximately $454 million in late December 2019.