KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have fallen below $9 billion after three months while the private banks succeeded to maintain their reserves.
The SBP on Thursday announced that its reserves dropped to $8.902bn during the week ending August 15, 2014.
Its reserves touched 10-year low at $3.18bn in January 2014, but the massive government borrowing from international lenders and issuance of Eurobonds had helped rebuild the reserves to $9.277bn in July 2014.
Debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with no fresh dollar inflows during the last three months caused the decline in the reserves.
The country’s overall reserves also fell to $13.9bn during the week under review against $14.2bn last week.
However, the reserves held by scheduled banks were $5.023bn against $5.076bn the previous week.
Published in Dawn, August 22nd, 2014