Karachi: In alarming news, the State Bank of Pakistan notified that the foreign exchange reserves of Pakistan fell below $8 billion and clocked in at $7.83 billion – the lowest since October 2019.
According to the weekly report on forex reserves published by the SBP, the total forex reserves held by the Central bank plunged to $555 million as of August 5, 2022, from $8.385 billion as of July 29 – an alarming 6.7pc drop.
During the same period under review, the net reserves held by the commercial banks also dropped by $92.5 million to $5.731billion from $5.823 billion.
Cumulatively, the total foreign exchange reserves dipped by $648 million to $13.561 billion from $14.209 billion during the period week ended on August 5.
The SBP, in a statement, said the reduction in the reserves of Pakistan was due to external debt payments.
“Debt repayments are expected to moderate during the next three weeks of this month,” the central bank said. “In fact, around three-fourths of debt servicing for the month of August was concentrated during the first week.”
46.8pc trade deficit during July
The first month of the current fiscal year saw a major decline in exports as it dropped by 24pc month-on-month basis to $2.2 billion during July of the fiscal year 2023 from June’s $2.9 billion, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics reported on Tuesday.
According to the PBS, there was also a major downshift in the total imports as it also dropped by 38.3pc to $4.861 billion compared to a $7.9 billion recorded during June 2022.
The report also showed that the imbalance between imports and exports dropped to 46.76pc on MoM and stood at $2.642 billion in July 2022 compared to $4.962 billion in June 2022.
On a year-on-year basis, the trade deficit narrowed by 18.33pc and remained at $2.642 billion in July 2022 compared to $3.235 billion in July 2021.
