Foreign exchange reserves fall to lowest level since October 2019

KARACHI: Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank continued to decline due to external debt and other payments.

 According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reserves fell below $8 billion — the lowest level since October 11, 2019.

On August 5, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $7,830.3 million, down $555 million compared with $8,385.4 on July 29, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday showed.

“Debt repayments are expected to moderate during the next three weeks of this month. In fact, around three-fourths of debt servicing for the month of August was concentrated during the first week,” the SBP said in a brief notification.

Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $13,561.1 million.

Net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,730.8 million.

It should be noted that with the current foreign exchange reserves position, Pakistan has an import cover of fewer than 1.12 months.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani rupee gained Rs21.06 in the last nine sessions against the US dollar in the interbank market on positive economic cues.