KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) drastically declined by $846 million during the week ended on January 21.

The massive decline led to a total loss of $1.4 billion in reserves of the SBP during the current month, giving a poor picture particularly in the wake of increasing current account deficit, which exceeded to $9bn during the first half of the current fiscal year (FY22).

The SBP reported on Thursday that its reserves fell to $16.190bn from $17.035bn on January 14. The reserves were $17.598 on January 7. During Jan FY22, the total fall in reserves was $1.408bn.

However, since August 2021, the reserves fell by 19.3 per cent or $3.883bn to date. The reserves were $20.073bn in August.

The country’s total reserves fell by $867m to $22.482bn during the week while the reserves of the commercial banks declined by $22m to $6.292m.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2022