RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: Pakistan has received some $725 million fresh inflows from multilateral agencies. During the current week, overall the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has received around $1.725 billion from international financial institutions. Some one billion dollar was arrived on Wednesday, while another $725 million were received from two multilateral agencies on Thursday for support Pakistan economy in COVID-19 pandemic.

This amount includes some $725 million from the World Bank, $500 million from Asian Development Bank and $500 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. With arrival of these dollar inflows, the country’s totalled forex exchange reserves are expected to easily cross $18 billion mark. However, these inflows will be reflected in the foreign exchange reserves to be issued next week. These funds will be part of SBP’s weekly reserves data as of June 26, 2020 to be released on July 2, 2020.

Economist said that with arrival of these inflows not only foreign exchange reserves build-up but also exchange rate will be improved.

According to SBP, during the week ended June 19, 2020, SBP reserves were decreased by $146 million to $ 9.96 billion mainly due to government’s external debt payments of $ 244.5 million. During the period under review, the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $ 16.73 billion including $6.768 billion of reserves held by the commercial banks.