KARACHI: Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank increased by $17 million to $15.867 billion during the week ending May 8, the State Bank of Pakistan said on Thursday.
The country’s total liquid foreign reserves rose by $43 million to $21.337 billion. The reserves of commercial banks also increased by $27 million to $5.469 billion.
The latest FX reserves numbers come after Pakistan received about $1.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under existing loan facilities. The IMF inflows have increased the SBP’s reserves to over $17 billion, enough to cover three months of imports. The SBP said that this IMF disbursement would be reflected in its reserves for the week ending on May 15.
Last month, the central bank projected that its FX reserves would exceed $18 billion by the end of this fiscal year.The SBP’s reserves continue to grow weekly despite debt repayments. In April, Pakistan made significant repayments totalling $3.5 billion to the United Arab Emirates and $1.3 billion for a Eurobond.
In a major development, Pakistan issued its first yuan-denominated panda bond in China’s onshore capital market on Thursday, raising 1.75 billion yuan (approximately $250 million) at a coupon rate of 2.5 per cent.
“The inaugural panda bond is a three-year fixed-rate instrument, making it Pakistan’s first-ever RMB-denominated sovereign issuance in China’s onshore capital market,” Khurram Schehzad, the finance minister adviser, wrote on X.
“The landmark panda bond issuance of RMB 1.75 billion (equivalent to $250 million) attracted overwhelming investor demand of over RMB 8.8 billion (approximately $1.26 billion), resulting in an oversubscription of more than five times,” he added.
