Thanks to the Unprecedented Economic Growth, the Unprecedented amount of Foreign Reserves inherited by the present govt are being eaten up very very fast.
If the govt does not start governing soon, rather than continuing with nonsensical rhetoric, then Pakistan will be back to pre 1999 days very very quickly. ![]()
Pakistan News Service - PakTribune
Forex reserves fall to $10.487bn
**KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves fell $241 million to $10.487 billion in the week that ended on July 26 due to outgoings for import payments, the central bank said on Thursday. **
According to official data, the State Bank of Pakistan said its reserves fell $330 million to $7.448 billion, while those held by commercial banks rose $89 million to $3.039 billion from $2.95 billion.
Total reserves are now down to the equivalent of less than three months of imports, raising the prospect of a balance of payments crisis unless large multilateral loans arrive soon.
The government says it has obtained Saudi Arabia’s agreement to defer oil import payments for the 2008/09 fiscal year (July-June) and an announcement would be made soon by Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of $16.486 billion on Oct 31, 2007, but have fallen since then because of rising oil payments and foreign investors pulling money out because of political uncertainty dogging the country after a civilian coalition formed a new government.
The central bank on Tuesday tightened the monetary policy by raising the discount rate to 13 per cent from 12 per cent to counter accelerating inflation and widening fiscal and current account deficits.
It also took steps to help stabilise the rupee earlier this month. The main measure was a temporary suspension of forward booking of foreign currency for all imports.
An assurance was also given that the central bank would provide foreign exchange to authorised dealers for all imports of furnace oil used for power plants.