ISLAMABAD: According to the State Bank of Pakistan’s weekly data, Pakistan’s foreign reserves have gone up by $276 million, to $3.19 billion as per the week ending on the 10th of February. As of the 10th, Total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $8.7 billion. Net foreign reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.51 billion.
The SBP’s liquid reserves reached a critically low level of $2.92 billion on the 3rd February. Even before that the reserves have been on a constant decline for the last 6 months with slight recoveries here and there. The last week yielded better news in terms of Pakistan’s reserves position however, experts suggest that Pakistan is nowhere near, out of trouble.
The import cover of the country is still less than a month as the government is making haste in getting the IMF agreement signed. The IMF mission left for Washington on the 10th of February, after completing their 9th review. No news of the Staff Level Agreement being signed has surfaced yet. However, Finance minister, Ishaq Dar notified the receiving of the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies by the IMF. The memorandum contains a detail of the prior actions that Pakistan has to take before the SLA is signed. It was in line with these actions that the government imposed taxes worth Rs 170 Billion on Tuesday and hiked the prices of fuels.
The IMF deal is now deemed crucial for Pakistan’s falling reserves. It is expected that the country will receive more bilateral aid, once it receives the stamp of approval from the IMF through the fund’s Staff Level Agreement.
