Foreign exchange reserves decline $151mn to $26bn

KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have declined $151 million to $26 billion by the week ended October 1, 2021, the central bank said on Thursday.
The foreign exchange reserves of the country stood at $26.151 billion by the week ended September 24, 2021. The official reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) decreased $126 million to $19.169 billion by the week ended October 1, 2021 compared with $19.295 billion a week ago.
The foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks also decreased $25 million to $6.831 billion, compared with $6.856 billion a week ago. The central bank cited no reason behind the decrease in the reserves.
Earlier in the week ended on August 27, the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank soared to an all-time high of $20.15 billion after Pakistan received general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $2,751.8 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.
On March 30, 2021, Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building the foreign exchange reserves. It received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the 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. – TLTP