KARACHI, Nov 29: Pakistan’s gross liquid foreign exchange reserves crossed the $9 billion mark on Friday, a spokesman for the State Bank told Dawn.

He said the reserves stood at $9.01 billion on November 29 of which $6.86 billion were with the SBP and the remaining $2.15 billion with all other banks.

Pakistan’s reserves have been on the rise after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA last year. At end-September 2001 gross liquid reserves stood at $3.2 billion. Bankers say the reserves started rising due to larger home remittances from the US and other countries as the US government put a stricter check on bank accounts of non-residents after 9/11 and other countries also followed the suit. They say that the reserves also went up due to the loans sanctioned and released by the IMF/World Bank/Asian Development Bank and other multilateral agencies. A one-time official grant from the US and other nations to Pakistan in the wake of its role in the “war against terrorism” also swelled the reserves. Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Aziz said the other day that the reserves may rise to $10 billion by the end of this fiscal year in June 2003.