ISLAMABAD-Following the staff level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the last month, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have increased by $464 million in previous month. “During the week ended on 29-Dec-2023, SBP’s reserves increased by $464 million to $8,221.2 million mainly due to official GoP inflows,” said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at $13,220.6 million as of 29-Dec-2023. The break-up of the foreign reserves position showed that foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan are $8,221.2 million and foreign reserves held by commercial banks are $4,999.4 million.
Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves had also increased by $852 million to $7,757.1 million mainly due to receipt of official GoP inflows in the previous week. The international financial institutions are announcing loans for Pakistan following the staff level agreement with the IMF in December 2023. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank had recently announced loans for Pakistan. The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved $350 million in financing for the Second Resilient Institutions for Sustainable Economy (RISE-II) Operation, which aims to strengthen fiscal management and promote competitiveness for sustained and inclusive economic growth. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank had approved $250 million for the Second Resilient Institutions for Sustainable Economy (RISE-II) development policy financing. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) had recently approved three projects totalling $658.8 million to help Pakistan achieve its goal of more inclusive and sustainable growth and development.
Pakistan is expecting to receive more inflows from international financial institutions in the next couple of months as the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Executive Board would meet on January 11 next year to approve the next tranche worth of $700 million for Pakistan. The country is expecting $1.8 billion from the IMF and $1.5-4.5 billion from various international financial institutions like Asian Development Bank (ADB), World Bank (WB) & AIIB within current fiscal year. The staff-level agreement would enable approvals of $1 billion in loans from the World Bank. According to officials, these agreements were already at an advanced stage and were pending for the IMF’s agreement. Talks with some other commercial entities were also at an advanced stage to materialise $3.5 billion projected commercial inflows.