KARACHI: The total liquid foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan fell $294 million to $5.821 billion — their lowest in eight years — the latest data showed Thursday due to debt servicing.
This leaves Pakistan with an import cover for merely 1.10 months as its beleaguered government struggles to meet the country’s unwieldy external financing needs.
Foreign exchange reserves held by commercial banks stood at $5.885 billion as of December 23.
Pakistan direly needs funds to cover its current account deficit and debt obligations, for which over $30 billion is needed in external financing this fiscal year. Inflows expected from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have stuck after a stalemate struck the programme’s ninth review.
Arif Habib Ltd’s analyst Sana Tawfiq said the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme had once again fallen off track amid delays in the completion of the 9th review.
“IMF has raised concerns of the fiscal slippages emanating from a combination of the devastating floods and revenue shortfall particularly from Petroleum Development Levy (PDL),” Tawfiq said in a report.
There have also been concerns over the accuracy of the budgeted flood rehabilitation expenditure, she said, adding that survival without IMF was not an option given the scale of the external financing needs, where the majority of the funding was linked to an IMF endorsement. Data showed that country’s total forex reserves stood at $11,707.2 million as of December 23, 2022. –Agencies
