Another tranche of Coalition Support Fund (CSF), amounting to $200 million, was received by Pakistan, last week. The country was expecting over $1 billion CSF inflows during the current fiscal year and the amount received last week was the second tranche of the CSF. The much- awaited first payment amounting to $350m under the CSF was released in the last week of February whereas the second installment was arrived in the first week of March. Cumulatively, the country has received some $550m under CSF during the two weeks.
The weekly foreign exchange reserve report issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, said that with the arrival of CSF inflows, Pakistan's total liquid foreign exchange reserves surged to $22.274 billion as on March 10, 2017 as compared to $ 22.152bn of March 3, 2017, showing an increase of $122m.
During the week under review, the SBP reserves increased by $99m to $17.238bn up from $17.139bn with the arrival of $200m on account of CFS. During the last week, SBP also made payments of $97m under the head of debt servicing.
Similarly, reserves held by the banks increased by $23.6m to $5.036bn by end of last week and up from $5.012bn a week earlier.