As per the official data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased 12.75% on a weekly basis.
On June 26, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $11,231 million, up $1,270 million compared with $9,961.2 million in the previous week.
The SBP received approximately $2.046 million in official inflows including $737 million from the World Bank, $503 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), $500 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and $300 million from China as the government of Pakistan’s loan disbursement.
“After incorporating government’s external debt payments of $809 million, SBP’s reserves increased by $1,270 million to $11,231 million,” said a press release issued by the central bank.
On 9 July last year, Pakistan received the first $991.4 million loan tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which helped raise the reserves. The IMF released the second loan tranche of approximately $454 million in late December.
The reserves had previously jumped on China’s $2.5 billion in inflows. A few months ago, on Sukuk’s maturity, the SBP successfully made more than $1 billion in foreign debt repayments.
Due to inflows from multilateral creditors including $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank, foreign-exchange reserves reached the $10-billion mark in December 2019.
Previously, the reserves had spiraled downward, dipping below the $7-billion mark, raising concern about Pakistan’s ability to meet its funding needs. Financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and other friendly nations did, however, help shore up foreign reserves.
