Foreign reserves fall by $125.1mn to $27.1bn: SBP

KARACHI: The foreign exchange reserves of the country decreased to $27,102.60 million on September 03 on a weekly basis against $27,227.7 million recorded on August 27, 2021, showing a decrease of $125.10 million (-0.46 percent).
According to the data shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank decreased by $123 million (-0.61 percent) on a weekly basis to $20,022.60 million from $20,145.60 million.
Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the banks, other than the central bank, amounted to $7,080 million from $7,082.10 million on a weekly basis, showing a decrease of $2.10 million (-0.03 percent).
Earlier on August 23, 2021, the central bank received a general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $2,751.8 million, which helped lift reserves to a historic high level.
Earlier, Pakistan had borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds on March 30, 2021 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.
On the other hand, the remittances sent by overseas Pakistani workers in fiscal year 2020-21 registered the fastest growth in past 18 years and rose to an all-time high of $29.4 billion while playing a leading role in boosting country’s foreign currency reserves and improving its capacity to make international payments for imports and foreign debt repayments.
“On a cumulative basis, remittances rose to a historic high of $29.4 billion. This helped improve the country’s external sector position despite the challenging global economic conditions in the past year,” the SBP reported earlier. Remittances registered a substantial growth of 27% in FY21 over the previous year which was the fastest rate of expansion since FY03, it said. – TLTP