SBP's forex reserves witness rise for 9th straight month

The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) recorded a slight rise of 0.45 percent to reach $9.51 billion week-on-week (WoW).

According to the statistics shared by the central bank on Thursday, the reserves increased by $43 million till the week ended on September 20, while the total reserves of the country surged by $30.4 million or 0.21 percent to $14.83 billion.

However, the reserves held by the commercial banks fell by $12.6 million or 0.24 percent WoW to $5.32 billion.

The development came after the SBP Monetary Policy Committee announced a decline of 200 basis points in interest rate, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) added Pakistan to its meeting schedule, which paved the way to unlock the $7 billion bailout programme.

Earlier, the central bank's governor Jameel Ahmed had said the SBP reserves were estimated to increase to $12 billion in March and $13 billion in June of the next fiscal year.

Speaking to an analyst before announcing the Monetary Policy, Ahmed had said that the SBP was buying greenback from the interbank to boost its reserves.

He had informed that the supply of foreign currency in June remained higher than demand due to the imports in the banking system, but the remittances from overseas workers increased export earnings as the inflows of the greenback remained beyond expectations.