KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves increased by $119 million during the week ended August 9, the central bank announced on Thursday.

The SBP’s forex holdings rose to $9.27 billion from $9.15bn in the preceding week. The central bank has recently said that the country needs just $7bn for the debt servicing as rest of the debt would be rolled over.

After announcing the monetary policy on July 29, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad told analysts and researchers that the country needs about $26.2bn for debt servicing in FY24.

The government has been trying to get maximum relaxation from China, the UAE and Saudi Arabia for rollover of debts.

Financial sector experts said the government has succeeded to get maximum benefits for debt servicing.

The total foreign exchange reserves of the country rose to $14.64bn including commercial banks’ $5.37bn.

Ijara sukuk

The government also raised Rs119bn through the stock exchange by selling Ijara sukuk against a target of Rs100bn. The total bids for the sukuk were Rs451bn.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2024