Pakistan’s liquid foreign exchange reserves continue to deplete and contracted by 1.2 per cent up to 2nd December, central bank reported. During the week under review, State Bank said, country’s foreign exchange reserves fell to $16.678 billion, $206 million down from $16.884 billion the country held last week that ended on 25th November. Central bank’s holdings of the greenback also shrank by $257 million or 1.9 per cent to $12.865 billion against the preceding week’s $13.122 billion. Contrary to it, commercial banks’ liquid foreign exchange reserves witnessed an upward trend for the second consecutive week and rose to $3.813 billion compared to $3.762 billion they possessed in the previous week. Against last week’s $4 million or 0.1 per cent increase, current week saw banks’ reserves registering a growth of $51 million or 1.3 per cent on the back of, what official and unofficial observers believe to be, increased deposits. Analysts attribute current fall in the country’s dollar reserves to burgeoning import payments and retirement of external debts that, according to SBP data, have aggregated to $62 billion.
