ISLAMABAD – A day after approval of staff level agreement by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board, the global lending agency has deposited $1.2 billion in the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) account.
Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday shared the information of IMF depositing $1.2 billion upfront payment in the account of the SBP.
Last night, the IMF Executive Board has approved the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) of providing $3 billion to the country facing the serious challenge of fast depleting foreign exchange reserves.
Under the agreement, Pakistan received an instalment of $1.2 billion and the remaining $1.8 billion will be released after subsequent reviews in November 2023 and February 2024.
Prior to the IMF Executive Board approval, Pakistan has provided details of around $8 billion loan rollover and funding from the friendly states to the IMF.
Most recently, Saudi Arabia has deposited $2 billion and the United Arab Emirates another $1 billion with the central bank which has provided much needed boost to the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
On receiving the latest payment from the IMF, SBP foreign exchange reserves will increase by $4.2 billion in the week closing on Friday.
Ishaq Dar expressed hope that the overall foreign exchange reserves, held by the SBP and the commercial banks, would close at $14 billion on Friday. He was all praise for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over his continuous engagement with the IMF which ultimately ending in approval of the SBA.
He said that the SBA was just for nine months and the new government formed after general elections would make own decisions.
“Pakistan is moving on a positive trajectory and we need to consolidate on these gains,” he said.
Drastically low foreign exchange reserves were posing threat of default which was initially avoided by a staff level agreement with the IMF for a bailout package. After receiving payments from Saudi Arabia, UAE and now from the IMF, the country’s foreign exchange reserves will reach to a comfortable range on the week ending on Friday.
SBP’s foreign exchange reserves reached $4,462.7 million after increasing by $393 million during the week ended on June 30, 2023.
The net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5,282.8 million after increasing by $11 million.
As such, the total liquid foreign reserves held by Pakistan reached $9,745.5 million after increasing by $404 million.
During the week ended on June 30, 2023, SBP reserves increased by US$ 393 million to US$ 4,462.7 million mainly due to receipt of official GoP inflows.
