The foreign exchange reserves shot up suddenly and the country again achieved the mark of over 12.5 billion dollars. The major jump was noted in the account of State Bank, which increased by $870 million and its total reached close to 10-billion-dollar mark. The country's reserves increased by $888 million to make the total at $12.729 billion. The reason for major inflow was the selling of Shariah-compliant Islamic bond 'Sukuk'.

The Sukuk was sold in London last month and the government raised $600 million while it received bids of $1.2 billion.

The State Bank's reserves soared to $9.923 billion with an increase of $870 million. Commercial banks also posted an increase of $17 million to make the total at $2.806 billion.

The country's reserves have been declining for the last few months since the State Bank had decided to pay all oil bills and the average per month expense on oil payment was $400 million.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005