Karachi September 8 2022: SBP foreign exchange reserves for the week ending September 9, 2022, were decreased by USD 176 million to USD 8,624 million as per data released by the Central Bank.
Central Bank reserves decline on external debt and other payments, says SBP in a statment.
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has stated while speaking to business community few days ago that there is still much pressure on the dollar which will not allow us for opening of LCs for imports.
Pakistan Rupee depreciates 1.56 or 0.67 percent in interbank to close at 235.88 against the dollar. Pakistan Rupee depreciates 7.45% or 17.58 since start of this month. Pakistan currency hit low of 239.94 on 29th July 2022 on uncertainty of IMF program.
Last week, SBP’s forex exchange reserves increased by USD 1,103 million as Central Bank has received proceeds of USD 1.16 billion (equivalent of SDR 894 million) after the IMF Executive Board completed the combined seventh and Eight review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan on 31st August 2022. IMF successful review will also facilitate realization of other planned inflows from multilateral and bilateral sources.
Pakistan Central Bank projected that with the completion of the upcoming IMF review and the additional assistance secured from friendly countries, FX reserves are expected to rise to around $16 billion during FY23. To ensure this and to support the Rupee going forward, it will be important to contain the current account deficit to around 3 percent of GDP by moderating domestic demand and energy imports. In addition, it will be critical to keep the IMF program on-track by following through on the agreed fiscal tightening and structural reforms over the next 12 months.
At present, SBP reserves stand at the level of USD 8,624 million as of 9th September 2022 compared to USD 8,799 million at the end of the week ending 2nd September 2022.
During the same period, foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks increased by USD 20 million to the level of USD 5,693 million as of 9th September 2022.
Overall reserves held by the country witnessed an decrease of USD 156 million to USD 14,317 million during the week ended 9th September 2022.
