The nation has $9.75 billion worth of liquid foreign reserves in total. The total amount of net foreign reserves held by commercial banks came to $5.45 billion.
“During the week ended on March 3, SBP’s reserves increased by $487 million to $4.3bn due to receipt of $500m as GoP commercial loan from China,” it continued.
According to Arif Habib Limited’s calculations, the reserves have grown by $1.4 billion since February 3 and are now enough to fund imports for over a month.
After the cash-strapped country obtained a $500 million loan from a Chinese bank, the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $4 billion barrier.
According to the central bank’s weekly report, as of the week ending March 3, its foreign exchange reserves had grown by $487 million to $4,301 million, covering about a month’s worth of imports.
After receiving $700 million from the China Development Bank just a few days prior, the SBP this week got $500 million as part of the institution’s $1.3 billion facility from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
A commercial loan from the China Development Bank last week helped the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves rise by $556 million to $3.81 billion.
The central bank’s reserves, which were approximately $18 billion at the beginning of 2022 but have significantly decreased since highlighting how critical it is for Pakistan to finish the upcoming assessment of its IMF programme.
Although the initiative has been on hold since last year, Islamabad continues to work with the IMF to revive it.
The IMF mission left Islamabad last month without signing the staff-level agreement and instead released a brief, four-paragraph statement that emphasised the importance of promptly fulfilling the prerequisite requirements in order to restart the bailout that has been on hold since last year.
A staff-level deal with the IMF is anticipated to be signed within the next few days, according to remarks made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday.
