KARACHI: The central bank said Thursday that the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves increased by an additional $131 million to $11.418 billion over the week ending November 22.
Since the start of FY25, the SBP reserves have been rising monthly, reflecting the central bank’s dollar purchases and inflows from the currency market.
According to the information, the SBP’s reserves climbed from $9.22 billion in July, $10.73 billion in September, and $11.203 billion in October to $9.43 billion in August.
The central bank will be able to purchase more dollars from the currency market thanks to the increased remittances and export earnings, according to currency market analysts. This will increase its reserves and enable it to fulfill its responsibilities to repay foreign debt on time.
According to banking industry sources, the government is still having trouble getting debt rollovers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and China.
The finance minister recently made a suggestion that these friendly nations were not prepared to pay off the $14 billion debt.
Given that the nation is ill-equipped to pay this $14 billion in FY25, experts say this could be a watershed moment for the economy. They predicted that it would have a significant impact on the economy’s external account and that the surplus current account might experience a sharp increase in deficit.
The financial industry anticipated a potential shock if the three nations said “no” to the rollover issue.
Some claimed that increased exports of human resources would keep remittances high. In 2023, about a million individuals departed Pakistan.
According to the State Bank, the nation’s overall reserves for the week were $16.076 billion, which included $4.657 billion from commercial banks. While commercial banks reduced their reserves, the nation’s overall performance improved little.
