SBP reserves up $67m to $12.1bn

KARACHI: The liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country rose $95 million to $19,047.3 million on a weekly basis, according to data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday.

On July 17, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $12,121.6 million, up $67 million compared with $12,054.9 million in the previous week.

"No significant inflows or outflows were observed this week," Tahir Abbas, Head of Research at Arif Habib Limited, noted.

Net reserves held by banks amounted to $6,925.7 million, an increase of 4bps compared to the last week's levels of $6.898 billion.

The import cover has risen to 2.9 months this week from 2.8 months last week. A reason for this is the suppressed level of imports during Covid-19 lockdown.