RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: With the arrival of funds from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves crossed $18 billion mark at the end of last week.

Pakistan, on April 22, received inflows amounting to $ 1.39 billion from the IMF under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI) to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 shock.

With the support of this inflow, the country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.163 billion to $18.463 billion as on April 24, 2020 compared to $17.30 billion on April 17, 2020.

Although, the SBP has received some $1.4 billion inflows from the IMF to meet the urgent balance of payment needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, during last week, the SBP has also made government external debt repayments amounting to $ 234 million. Due to this payment, overall SBP reserves rose by $1.181 billion to $ 12.07 billion by the end of last week.

Similarly, reserves held by banks declined by $18.4 million to $6.393 billion.