Karachi October 20 2022: SBP foreign exchange reserves for the week ending October 14 2022, were move up by USD 0.3 million to USD 7,597 million as per data released by the Central Bank.
Central Bank reserves witnessed no major change, says SBP in a statement.
Pakistan Central Bank reserves will increase once committed amount of aid for the flood victims starting and flows from financial institutions such as ADB, WB, AIIB starts coming to the country.
The Asian Development Band (ADB) will provide flood relief support to Pakistan to the tune of US$ 2.3 to 2.5 billion including US$ 1.5 billion for the BRACE program which will be placed before the ADB Board for approval during this month.
At present, SBP reserves stand at the level of USD 7,597 million as of 14th October 2022, compared to USD 7,596 million at the end of the week ending 7th October 2022.
During the same period, foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks increased by USD 3.8 million to the level of USD 5,653 million as of 14th October 2022.
Overall reserves held by the country witnessed increase of USD 4.1 million to USD 13,251 million during the week ended 14th October 2022.
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.
