The country's liquid foreign exchange reserves fell sharply by $250 million during last week owing to external debt payments. According to State Bank of Pakistan, the country's total foreign exchange reserves stood at $23.615 billion as on November 25, 2016 compared to $23.865 billion as on November 18, 2016. The decrease in the reserves was on account of external debt servicing and other official payments.
As the SBP is responsible for the external debt payments, the entire decline has been witnessed in the reserves held by the central bank. During the period under review, the SBP's reserves declined by $272 million to $18.575 billion at the end of last week down from $18.847 billion. However, the reserves held by banks posted an increase of $22 million to $5.04 billion at the end of last week compared to $5.02 billion a week earlier.