Forex reserves rise to $17.30 billion

KARACHI: The total liquid foreign exchange reserves held by the country slightly rose to $17.300 billion from $17.295 billion, the central bank reported on Thursday.

However, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves fell $85 million to $10.889 billion during the week ended April 17.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the SBP stood at $10.974 billion in the previous week.

“This decline is attributed to government external debt payments of $145 million,” the SBP said.

The forex reserves of commercial banks stood at $6.411 billion, compared with $6.320 billion in the previous week.

The central bank received $1.39 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to address the economic impact of the Covid-19 shock.

These funds will be part of SBP weekly reserves data as of 24-April-2020, to be released on 30-April-2020, the bank said.