The country''s total liquid foreign exchange reserves fell sharply by $ 279 million during the last week owing to external debt payment. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country''s total foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 20 billion as on August 4, 2017 compared to $ 20.283 billion on July 28, 2017. The decrease in reserves was on account of external debt servicing and other official payments.

As the SBP is responsible for the external debt payments, the entire declined has been witnessed in the reserves held by the SBP. During the period under review, the SBP''s reserves declined by $ 299 million to $ 14.399 billion at the end of last week down from $ 14.698 billion. However, reserves held by banks posted an increase of $ 20 million to $ 5.605 billion at the end of last week compared to $ 5.585 billion a week earlier.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017