Nine year low: SBP’s forex reserves fall below $3b
In an alarming sign for the national economy, the country’s foreign exchange reserves have fallen to a nine-year-low.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) released data on Thursday evening showing that Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves decreased to $8.540 billion for the week ending February 3, 2023.
Due to payments on external debt, the reserves, according to the central bank, decreased by $170 million over the past week.
National reserves had fallen to $7.638 billion in March 2014, the lowest level since then.
However, the greatest impact of debt repayments was felt by the central bank’s reserves, which decreased to $2.917 billion from $3 billion.
For nine years, this was the lowest level of reserves held with the central bank. SBP’s reserves had decreased to $2.841 billion for the week ending February 7, 2014. For that week, the nation held $7.59 billion in reserves, with approximately $4.478 billion held by commercial banks.
According to SBP data, commercial banks’ reserves fell by $32.6 million to $5.623 billion in the week ending February 3, 2023.
According to experts, these reserves could only cover 0.58 percent of a month’s imports, or about 17 days.
