Daily Times

The foreign exchange reserves of the country increased by $105.60 million to $23,015.90 million by the week ended May 21, 2021, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

The foreign exchange reserves of the country were at $22,910.30 million by the week ended May 07, 2021. The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose 0.55 percent ($87.5 million) to $15,862 million, according to data released by the SBP. On May 7, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $15,774.5 million, up $177 million compared with $15,597.9 million in the previous week. According to the central bank, the rise came on the back of official inflows of the government.

Likewise, foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks increased by $18.10 million (o.25 percent) to $7,153.90 million by the week ended May 21, 2021 as compared with $7,135.8 million a week ago. Pakistan borrowed $2.5 billion through Eurobonds on March 30, 2021 by offering lucrative interest rates to lenders aimed at building the foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan received the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 9, 2019, which helped bolster the reserves. In late December 2019, the IMF released the second loan tranche of around $454 million.