KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves decreased by $123 million to $25.03 billion by the week ended December 10, 2021.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the foreign exchange reserves of the country were recorded at $25.15 billion by the week ended December 3, 2021.
The official reserves of the SBP fell $90 million (-0.48 percent) to $18.57 billion by the week ended December 10, 2021, compared with $18.66 billion a week ago. The central bank gave no reason for the decrease in reserves.
Similarly, the foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks fell $33 million to $6.46 billion by the week ended December 10, 2021, compared with $6.493 billion a week ago.
Earlier in the week ended on August 27, the foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank soared to an all-time high of $20.15 billion after Pakistan received general allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) worth $2,751.8 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on August 24.
On March 30, 2021, Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building the foreign exchange reserves. It received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the IMF on July 9, 2019, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December 2019, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.