The country’s dollar reserves, continuing a seesawing trend, climbed to $17.517 billion during the week ending on June 11, the State Bank data released Thursday show. This shows an increase of $353 million or two per cent when compared with foreign exchange reserves of $17.164 billion the country held the previous week.
According to latest SBP figures, during the week under review the central bank’s held $14.085 billion, registering an increase of $F359 million or 2.6 per cent against last week’s $13.726 billion. Whereas the week saw the foreign exchange reserves of commercial banks contracting slightly by $5 million to $3.432 billion, compared to $3.437 billion in the preceding week.
Such nominal changes in the greenback reserves being held, SBP Chief Spokesman Syed Wasimuddin says, are because of routine cash withdrawals by the account holders. Driven primarily by exports and worker remittances, the current healthy dollar inflows are expected to take the country’s foreign exchange reserves to record highs by the end of FY11, thus ridding heavily-indebted Pakistan of its balance of payment woes at least in the foreseeable future.
The resource-constrained government will start to retire the half-paid $ 11.3 billion loans under the IMF’s 2008 Stand-By Arrangement from the next financial year, FY12.
