The country's total liquid foreign exchange reserves fell by $139.4 million during last week owing to external debt payments. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country's forex reserves declined to $18.829 billion as on February 16, 2018 compared to $18.968 billion on February 9, 2018. The decrease in reserves was due to external debt servicing and other official payments.

As the SBP is responsible for the external debt payments, the major decline was witnessed in the reserves held by the central bank. During the period under review, the SBP's reserves declined by $130.2 million to $12.704 billion at the end of last week down from $12.834 billion. Reserves held by banks posted a decrease of $9.2 million to $6.125 billion at the end of last week.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2018