KARACHI: The country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves fell sharply $958 million in a week due to external debt servicing.

According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13.721 billion as of Nov 4, 2022 compared to $14.679 billion as of October 28, 2022. During the week under review, SBP’s reserves decreased by $956 million to $7.957 billion down from $8.913 billion.

According to SBP, the decline in reserves is due to external debt servicing. Major external debt repayments executed during the week includes repayment of Government of Pakistan commercial loans.

“Refinancing of these loans is in process which will improve foreign exchange reserves in coming weeks,” SBP mentioned.

Similarly, net foreign reserves held by commercial banks down by $2 million to $5.764 billion end of the last week. It may be mentioned here that during the week ended on Oct 28, 2022, SBP’s reserves were rose by $1.473 billion to $8.913 billion. This increase was attributed to the receipt of $1.5 billion from ADB.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022