The country continues to struggle with its worsening balance of payments crisis as the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) further decreased, data shared by the central bank showed Thursday.
The SBP, in its weekly bulletin, stated that its reserves reached $4.38 billion after decreasing by $74 million in the week ending May 5 due to external debt repayment.
It further said that net reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.61 billion, around $1.23 billion less than the SBP’s reserves, taking the country’s total liquid foreign reserves to $9.99 billion.
Pakistan’s foreign reserves have declined sharply in recent months to a critically low level. The current reserves are not sufficient for even a month’s imports — a position that has remained the same as the country faces an acute balance of payments crisis.
