KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) fell by $6 million to $4.46 billion during the week ending on April 28, announced the central bank on Thursday.

Currency experts believe a meagre fall in SBP reserves helped the exchange rate to remain stable for more than a couple of weeks.

However, bankers maintain that the current account surplus of $654m in March was the real support for the exchange rate.

In an interview, former finance minister Miftah Ismail said that April would also bring a surplus that would help to bring some stability to the economy.

Pakistan has massive curtailed imports, which badly hit the economic growth but improved the balance of payment situation.

What is more concerning for the government is an inordinate delay in signing a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund to unlock a $1.1bn tranche.

Pakistan needs another IMF programme for its future economic stability, as it requires a huge amount of about $35bn for external debt servicing in FY24.

However, the central bank has yet not received the promised inflows from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The country’s overall foreign reserves were $10.043bn including $5.586bn of commercial banks during the week.

In the preceding week, the SBP reserves had fallen by $30m.

Published in Dawn, May 5th, 2023