The country's foreign exchange reserves maintained a declining trend reaching below $ 20 billion at the end of last week. According to State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) weekly report issued Thursday, Pakistan's total liquid foreign exchange reserves fell by $248 million during last week due to external debt servicing. With current decline, the country's total liquid forex reserves stood at $19.772 billion as on January 12, 2018 as compared to $20.02 billion on January 5, 2018. During the week under review, SBP's reserves decreased by $284 million to $13.699 billion down from $13.983 billion a week earlier. The decline in the SBP's reserves was due to external debt servicing and other official payments.

However, the reserves held by banks posted an increase of $35 million to reach $6.073 billion at the end of last week compared to $6.038 million at the end of previous week.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018