Staff Reporter
Karachi
The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased 1.32% on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.
Earlier, the reserves had spiralled downwards, falling below the $7-billion mark, which raised concern over Pakistan’s ability to meet its financing requirements. However, financial assistance from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and other friendly nations helped shore up the foreign exchange reserves.
On December 6, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $9,233.6 million, up $120.7 million compared with $9,112.9 million in the previous week.
“During the week ending December 6, SBP made a repayment of Pakistan International Sukuk of $1 billion,” the central bank stated. After accounting for multilateral and other official inflows during the week, SBP reserves increased by $121 million, it added.
The central bank also received inflows worth $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank on December 9.
“These funds will be part of the SBP weekly reserves data as of December 13, 2019, to be released on December 19,” the statement added.
