Pakistan’s liquid foreign reserves witnessed an outflow of $255 million in the week that ended on December 31, 2021, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The central bank’s weekly report released on Thursday revealed that the country’s total liquid foreign exchange reserves went down on December 31, 2021, to $24.02 billion. SBP’s reserves fell by $169 million to $17.686 billion during the week under review, compared to $17.855 billion on December 24.

Meanwhile, the net foreign reserves held by the commercial banks amounted to $6.3 billion, depicting a decline of $85 million on a weekly basis.

Overall, the liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than SBP stood at $24,018.8 million, down $255 million on a week-over-week basis.

The last month proved to be very tough for the foreign exchange reserves which recorded an outflow of over $1 billion.

According to SBP, the foreign exchange reserves decreased to $24.01 billion by the end of December 2021 as compared to the reserves level stood at $25.1 billion on December 03, showing an outflow of $1.13 billion.

The government, which will likely get a tranche of $1 billion from the International Monetary Fund, has been working on various reforms in the last few weeks. The reserves level will likely be maintained with the expected inflow.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani Rupee (PKR) once again posted a loss against the US Dollar (USD) in the interbank market on Thursday. It depreciated by 18 paisas against the greenback and closed at Rs. 176.92 after halting movement and closing at 176.74 in the interbank market on Wednesday, 5 January.

Source: Pro Pakistani