KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank rose by $16 million to $16.072 billion during the week ending January 9, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Thursday.
The country’s total liquid foreign reserves also increased by $56 million to $21.248 billion. Similarly, the reserves of commercial banks rose by $40 million to $5.177 billion.The central bank’s reserves are consistently increasing. Improvements in the external current account, driven by better-than-expected remittances and a stable foreign exchange (FX) market, have enabled the SBP to make substantial FX purchases, contributing to the rise in reserves. From June 2024 to September 2025, the central bank made net purchases totalling $9.7 billion from the local currency market.
The SBP expects the current account deficit to remain within 0 to 1 percent of GDP in FY26. Moreover, with the realisation of planned official inflows, the SBP’s FX reserves are projected to increase to $17.8 billion by June 2026.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb recently said that Pakistan plans to issue its first-ever Panda bond in the coming weeks.Additionally, the government is expected to issue four Requests for Proposals (RFPs) in global markets for the issuance of Panda Bonds and dollar bonds, the Debt Management Office of the Ministry of Finance told financial market participants during a meeting at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) this week, according to Topline Securities.
Currently, the yield on a 10-year Chinese bond is below 2 percent, whereas a similar US bond yields between 4 percent and 4.5 percent.To attract international investors to the debt market, the team has been conducting global roadshows and has also finalised a list of over 100 global investors as part of its outreach efforts.The next maturity date for the Euro Bond is April 8, 2026, with an amount of $1.3 billion. The debt office team noted that the previous repayment, scheduled for September 2025, was a non-event for Pakistan due to the availability of sufficient resources.
