KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reser­ves plunged by over half a billion dollars in less than a month.

On Thursday, the central bank announced that its forex holdings recor­ded an outflow of $252 million to $11.166 billion during the week that ended on Feb 7.

However, the SBP res­e­rves witnessed a steep de­­cline of $559m from $11.725bn on Jan 10, mainly due to external debt repayments.

Despite heavy buying from the interbank currency market, the SBP faces growing pressure to meet external debt repayment obligations amid falling reserves.

The country’s overall fo­­reign exchange reser­v­­es fell to $15.862bn, inc­l­ud­ing $4.696bn held by the commercial banks du­­­­r­­ing the week under review.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2025