14/01/2023
Amid economic and political instability, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank fell $1.23 billion to $4.33 billion, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.
With pledged funds at Geneva moot yet to arrive and no breakthrough with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the foreign exchange reserves of the cash-strapped country fell dangerously low.
The recent announcement by the State Bank comes as Islamabad made $1.233 billion in external debt payments earlier this month, after which the forex reserves plunged to an alarming $4.3343 billion – the lowest in nearly a decade.
As of now, reserves with the commercial banks were maintained at $5.8 billion, while taken as a whole the foreign exchange reserves fell to $10.189 billion – enough to pay for hardly three weeks of imports.
The current FX reserves by SBP were said to be the lowest since 2013 when reserves nosedived to $4.22 billion.
