Karachi December 22 2022: SBP foreign exchange reserves for the week ending December 16 2022, were decreased by USD 584 million to low of eight years, as per data released by the Central Bank.
Central bank reserves decline on payment of external debt, according to the statement issued by the Central Bank. According to the data, this is the lowest level of central bank reserves since April 2014.
All debt repayments are on track and country’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to increase in second half of the current fiscal year, said Governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), Jameel Ahmad.
He said, for the fiscal year 2023, around $33 billion were to be repaid to external stakeholders, including the Current Account Deficit (CAD) of $10 billion and $23 billion in loan repayments.
Out of the payable $23 billion external debt, Pakistan has already repaid more than $6 billion whereas as a bilateral loan of $4 billion has been rolled over with the cooperation of relevant countries.
Another $8.3 billion maturing obligations are expected to be rolled over as discussions are underway. The remaining outstanding repayment stands around $4.7 billion for the remainder of this fiscal year. This includes $1.1 billion in commercial loans that have to be paid to foreign banks and $3.6 billion in multilateral loans.
At present, SBP reserves stand at the level of USD 6,116 million as of 16th December 2022, compared to USD 6,700 million at the end of the week ending 9th December 2022.
During the same period, foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks increased by USD 14 million to the level of USD 5,883 million as of 16th December 2022.
Overall reserves held by the country witnessed decrease of USD 570 million to USD 12,000 million during the week ended 16th December 2022.
