The country’s foreign exchange reserves remain almost flat at $17.209 billion during the current week ending on the 21st of this month. Following a week-long downward trend the country’s dollar holdings are witnessing some recovery for the last couple of weeks and last week rose nominally by 0.18 per cent to $17.202 billion against $17.171 billion of the preceding week.
Major stimulus behind this increase appears to be the reserves of the commercial banks that had been witnessing an upward trend for several weeks due to – what the SBP spokesman believes – growing deposits. 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.
The regulator counted its holdings of the greenback at $13.443 billion, down by $19 million or 0.1 per cent when compared with last week’s $13.462 billion. Reserves of the commercial banks, however, continued to grow and climbed up by $26 million – or 0.6 per cent – against $3.740 billion the banks possessed a week earlier.
