The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased by 6.3 percent on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Friday.
On March 17, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $4.590 billion, up $271 million compared to 4.319 billion on March 10.
Pakistan Liquid Foreign Exchange Reserves #SBP #ForeignExchangeReserves #Pakistan #Economy pic.twitter.com/V3NHbLQq0k
— Topline Securities (@toplinesec) March 24, 2023
Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $10.130 billion, up $283 million over the previous week. The net reserves held by banks stood at $5.541 billion, registering a decrease of $13 million during the week.
According to Topline Securities, the current reserves are enough for an import cover of 1.17 months.
It is pertinent to mention here that China has granted rollover of $2 billion SAFE (State Administration of Foreign Exchange) deposits for one year. In the previous few weeks, the central bank has also received $1 billion from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), in two installments with the third and final installment of $300 million expected in the coming weeks.
However, despite these inflows, Pakistan is yet to secure any financial help from other friendly countries, which is also a prerequisite of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the staff-level agreement.
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