KARACHI, June 21(ABC): The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) rebutting rumours Tuesday said that its liquid foreign exchange reserves of $8.9 billion have not dried up and are are “fully usable”.
The central bank’s response came after reports implied that the reserves have dried up or are not usable and that the SBP has stopped import payments and that banks have run out of dollars.
The SBP noted that on June 10, it released the details of the liquid foreign reserves, which stood at $8.99 billion. It added that those did not include gold reserves and are “fully usable for all purposes”.
The central bank said it has not stopped import payments and commercial banks have sufficient dollar liquidity to execute these payments.
“Import payments of around$ 4.7 billion have been executed through the interbank market during the month so far,” the central bank added.