Pakistan's forex reserves drop by 255 million dollars
State Bank's reserves now stand at 16.73 billion dollars while commercial banks' reserves stable
LAHORE: (Dunya News) – Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have on Thursday dropped by USD 255 million. The reserves with State Bank of Pakistan are now at USD 16.73 billion after a drop of 255 million dollars while the reserves with the commercial banks are still stable at 5 billion dollars, reported Dunya News.
The reserves have dropped due to the payment of loans and interest. It is pertinent to mention here that the national reserves had exceeded USD 24 billion, highest in the history of Pakistan, due to the loans given by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other financial institutions.
According to analysts, the balance of payments has seen a negative trend during the last eight months due to which the trade deficit has reached over 20 billion dollars while the United States has only paid USD 300 million out of USD 1.23 billion under Coalition Support Fund.
Under such a situation, the government would either use the foreign exchange reserves in order to deal with the deficit or take more loans.
