SBP-held foreign exchange reserves surpass $11bn after more than 2 years

Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) increased by $215 million on a weekly basis, clocking in at $11.02 billion to hit 2.5-year high as of October 11, 2024, data released on Thursday showed.

Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $16.11 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.09 billion.

The central bank did not specify a reason for the increase in reserves.

“During the week ended on 11-Oct-2024, SBP reserves increased by US$ 215 million to US$ 11,022.7 million,” it said.

This brings the SBP-held reserves to a 2.5-year high, as the dollar stockpile was last recorded above $11 billion back on April 1, 2022.

Last week, SBP foreign exchange reserves increased by $106 million.

Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Sunday that the country’s economy was moving towards positive direction and the foreign exchange reserves would touch $11 billion in the next two weeks.

“This means that we are going to have roughly 2.5 months of import cover. The global good standard is 3 months of import cover. Thus, we are moving in right directions that the delay seen in issues like dividend remittances to Chinese companies will not reoccur,” he said while addressing an event organised by the China Chamber of Commerce in Pakistan.

The recent increase in the SBP reserves has come on the back of an inflow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Last month, the central bank received the first tranche of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) 760 million, equivalent to $1.03 billion, from the IMF after its Executive Board approved the 37-month, $7-billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Pakistan.

The Pakistani authorities and the IMF team reached a staff-level agreement on the EFF in the amount equivalent to SDR 5,320 million (or about USD 7 billion) on July 12.