Forex reserves increase to $12.963bn

The country’s foreign exchange reserves witnessed a steep increase during the last week to reach $12.963 billion. The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) statistics showed on Thursday that overall reserves recorded a gain of $1.118 billion to reach $12.963 billion on August 15, 2009, as compared with $11.845 billion last week. According the figures released by the SBP, reserves held by SBP witnessed a major increase of $1.111 billion to reach $9.468 billion, as compared with $8.357 billion last week. The reserves held by the banks (other than SBP) witnessed an increase of $6 million to reach $3.494 billion as compared with $3.488 billion last week. Foreign reserves hit a record high of $16.5 billion in October 2007, but fell steadily to $6.6 billion by November of last year, largely because of a soaring import bill. Pakistan agreed in November to an IMF emergency loan package of $7.6 billion to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves. The fund last week increased the loan to $11.3 billion. The IMF had released a third tranche of $1.2 billion last week that was reflected in the recent data by SBP. staff report