The country’s foreign exchange reserves are contracting, while those of commercial banks are on the rise, according to state bank data. The central bank attributes the present downward trend in the country’s holding of the greenback to scheduled debt repayment.
The central bank Thursday said total dollar reserves held by the country by the 8th of this month shrank by one per cent or $174 million to $17.171 billion, against last week’s $17.345 billion.
Likewise, the state bank also saw its holdings of the greenback declining by 1.2 per cent or $176 million to $13.460 billion, compared to $13.636 billion the regulator held a week earlier. SBP chief spokesman Syed Wasimuddin attributes this reduction to “normal scheduled debt repayments”.
On the other hand, commercial banks’ reserves are going and during the week under review increased, tough nominally, by $3 million to $3.711 billion against $3.708 billion last week. The SBP spokesman attributes this upward trend to the banks’ increased deposits. Analysts are cautiously observing the ongoing up and downs in the country’s dollar reserves that, they believe, would rid the resource-constrained country of its balance of payment woes, at least in the foreseeable future. Besides, the analysts believe healthy inflows of the greenback, which is unfortunately not the case at present, would also help the rupee strengthen against the US currency in the money market.
