KARACHI, May 19, 2023: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP)-led foreign exchange reserves have dropped further during the week ending on May 12 as external debt repayments have continuously slashed the reserves for the third straight week.
According to the central bank, the reserves fell by $72 million to $4.31 billion. The current reserves can cater to the imports worth less than a month.
The country’s total foreign exchange reserves again slipped to single digits at $9.937bn including $5.625bn holdings of commercial banks.
Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stand at $5.62bn, $1.01bn more than the central bank, bringing the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country to $9.93bn.
Former finance minister Dr Miftah Ismail and some economic analyists have already rasied alarm over uncertain economic outlook of the country as global finanial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) are still hesitant to release “already committed” loans to the cash-strapped Pakistan.
They say the country needs another package of loans from the IMF to avoid default in the next fiscal year as well.