KARACHI – The country’s foreign exchange reserves slightly rose by 0.18 percent to over $ 16.424 billion during the week ending on December 25, the State Bank said Thursday. During the week under review, the country witnessed its foreign exchange reserves surging by $ 31 million against last week ending on December 18 when the liquid reserves were calculated at $ 16.393 billion.
During the week the central bank counted its foreign exchange reserves at over $ 12.709 billion, marking an increase of $ 78 million when compared to $ 12.631 billion of the previous week.
However, the reserves of commercial banks kept witnessing a downward trend to decrease by $ 47 million to stand at over $ 3.715 billion against $ 3.762 billion of last week, the central bank said.
Over the last couple of months the fund-starved Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have been seesawing with a general downward trend, however, prevailing over the rare increases for, what the State Bank says, regular debt payments and cash withdrawals from the commercial banks.
