KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have surpassed the December 2025 target of USD15.5 billion, following the receipt of funds from the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) and the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) and continued FX purchases.
On the financing side, the SBP noted that net inflows have remained subdued. Despite this, the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves continued to build up, surpassing the December 2025 target of USD 15.5 billion to exceed USD 15.8 billion as of December 12, 2025.
The increase is supported by the receipt of USD 1.2 billion from the IMF following the successful completion of the EFF and RSF reviews, along with continued foreign exchange purchases by the SBP from the market.
Pakistan receives $1.2bn from IMF, confirms SBP
Looking ahead, with the materialization of planned official inflows, the SBP projects its foreign exchange reserves to rise further to USD 17.8 billion by June 2026.
In an analyst briefing following the Monetary Policy Committee meeting, SBP Governor Jameel Ahmed also expects stronger government inflows in the second half of FY26. As of December 12, 2025, official government inflows totaled just USD 2.1 billion, including USD 1.2 billion from the IMF. He anticipates that all planned government inflows would be realized between January and June FY26.
The SBP Governor disclosed that debt repayments for FY26 total USD 25.8 billion, of which USD 9.7 billion has already been paid or rolled over. For the remainder of FY26, the net repayable amount stands at USD 6.9 billion, excluding any rollovers.
According to Topline, Governor SBP commented that FX interventions remained lower side in first two month in FY26 but this has increased in subsequent months close to average of last year.
According to Monetary Policy Statement, since the last MPC meeting, broad money (M2) growth accelerated to 14.9 percent as of November 28, driven by an increase in net budgetary borrowing from the banking system.
Private sector credit expanded by Rs187 billion during July-November, amidst borrowing by key sectors like textile, wholesale & retail, and chemicals. Consumer financing, particularly automobile loans, remained strong in the wake of easing financial conditions, improved consumer sentiments and a stable macroeconomic environment.
However, on y/y basis, private sector credit was down 0.3 percent, mainly due to high base effect stemming from the ADR-driven extraordinary credit expansion in Q2-FY25. On the liability side, currency in circulation broadly remained unchanged, whereas an increase in deposits led to a moderate decline in the currency-to-deposits ratio.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.