KARACHI: The central bank’s foreign exchange reserves plummeted by almost half a billion dollars during the week that ended on June 16, making the country’s external account more vulnerable.

The State Bank on Thursday said it had to pay $482 million during the week as debt servicing, which brought down its total reserves to just $3.536 billion — the lowest level since mid-February.

However, it insisted that a $300 million commercial loan received by the government during the week was not factored in, as would be incorporated in the next week’s data.

The country has already lost some $7.1bn due to low exports and remittances this fiscal year. The amount lost was much higher than the $1.1bn the country was struggling to secure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has apparently failed to satisfy experts and the media about the failure of talks with the IMF and still hopes that the Fund will release an instalment before the bailout package expires by the end of this month.

The US dollar lost 25 paise against the rupee in the interbank market on Thursday. The State Bank reported the closing rate of the dollar as Rs286.73 compared to Rs286.98 a day before. The dollar rate in the open market remained unchanged at Rs292 for the second consecutive day.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023