Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves at a three-year high

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves jumped to $13.415 billion when the week ended on November 20, according to information shared by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The last time Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves were at this level was in January 2018. 

Pakistan’s total liquid foreign reserves, foreign exchange held by State Bank plus commercial banks of the country, also crossed $20 billion mark. It stood at $20.552 billion.

State Bank shares foreign exchange reserves data by a week’s delay.

The bank said that the reserves increased by $484 million due to government’s official inflows without giving further details.

Pakistan’s depleting dollar reserves were one of the main challenges for the PTI when it came into power in August 2018. Within its first six months, the PTI government saw dollar reserves down to a level that was barely enough to pay for two months of imports.

To tackle this challenge, Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government signed a $6 billion bailout with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). 

The increase in dollar reserves can be attributed to dollar inflows caused by the signing of the IMF programme, which opened more doors for Pakistan as the World Bank, ADB and AIIB also pledged support.

According to the IMF, the programme was supposed to unlock funding of $38 billion from multilateral donors.