Maintaining a week-long sea-sawing trend, the country’s liquid foreign exchange reserves slid to $17.146 billion during the week ending on the 28th of last month. According to State Bank, the country’s dollar holdings, after last week’s slight 0.18 per cent recovery, witnessed a slump of 0.3 per cent or $63 million and accumulated to $17.146 billion against $17.202 billion of the preceding week. State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Thursday said during the week under review the country’s total foreign exchange reserves ballooned by $7 million or 0.04 per cent to $17.209 billion compared to $17.202 billion of last week. During the week under review the central bank held $13.409 billion, down 0.2 per cent or $34 million when compared with the regulator’s last week’s holding of $13.443 billion.
The foreign exchange reserves of the commercial banks, a major stimulus for the country’s overall reserves, also remained downward at $3.737 billion. This shows a decline of $ 29 million or 0.7 per cent over the last week that saw the banks’ reserves aggregating to $3.766 billion. According to SBP chief spokesman Syed Wasimmudin, such up and downs in foreign exchange reserves were because of growth in bank deposits and with drawls and routine debt repayments.