Karachi: The State Bank of Pakistan’s reserves declined by another $87.4 million during the week that ended on August 19.
According to the State Bank’s weekly report on the status of Pakistan’s total liquid foreign reserves, during the week under review, the total SBP’s reserves declined by $87.4 million to reach $7.809 billion from $7.897 billion recorded on August 12.
Total liquid foreign #reserves held by the country stood at US$ 13.52 billion as of August 19, 2022. For details: https://t.co/WpSgomENV3 pic.twitter.com/LUhlaMa68v
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) August 26, 2022
Similarly, the net reserves held by the commercial banks also dropped by $4.3 million to reach $5.711 billion from $5.716 billion.
Cumulatively, the total foreign exchange reserves in the country witnessed a fall of $91.7 million to reach $13.521 billion from $13.613 billion during the period week ended on August 19.
Remittance inflow drops 8.6% in July of FY23
The first month of the current fiscal year witnessed a decline of 8.6% in remittance inflows compared to the amount sent by overseas Pakistanis in June.
According to a report by the State Bank, the total remittance inflows amounted to $2.5 billion in the July of FY23 compared to $2.761 billion in June of FY23 – a significant 8.6% decline on a month-on-month basis.
Similarly, on a year-on-year basis, the total remittance inflows recorded a decline of nearly 8%, as the remittances amounted to $2.73 billion during July last year.
The State Bank said that this drop was mainly due to “considerably fewer working days because of [the] Eid holidays”.
However, the daily average rate of remittances was 18% higher in July than in June, the SBP added.
Pakistan heavily depends on the influx of remittances to meet its foreign exchange needs because exports hardly cover the high level of imports.
