Pakistan's forex reserves triple since early 2023 as central bank targets $14 billion
KARACHI: Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves have more than tripled since early 2023, driven by a surplus in the external current account rather than fresh borrowing, the top central bank official said, according to a statement on Saturday, as the country targets $14 billion in reserves by June.
Pakistan's forex reserves had touched critically low levels two years ago, giving it an import cover of less than a month. Faced with the threat of a sovereign debt default, the country secured a $3 billion short-term International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, tightened fiscal and monetary policies, restricted imports and allowed greater exchange rate flexibility.
Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, Jameel Ahmad, told senior executives from global financial and investment institutions on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington the country's external buffers had seen a 'substantial qualitative as well as quantitative improvement' since then, as he briefed them about the current economic situation.
'Unlike previous episodes of reserve build-up, the ongoing rise in external buffers is not due to any further accumulation of external debt,' he said. 'In fact, Pakistan's public sector external debt, both in absolute terms and as a percent of GDP, has declined since June 2022.'
Ahmad added that the central bank had been able to strengthen reserves through foreign exchange purchases in the open market, supported by a current account surplus.
'The SBP is targeting to increase [forex] reserves to $14 billion by June 2025,' he said.
Ahmad said Pakistan had made tangible progress in stabilizing its economy, crediting a prudent monetary policy and sustained fiscal consolidation efforts for the improvement.
He informed that headline inflation had declined sharply over the past two years, reaching a multi-decade low of 0.7 percent in March 2025, while core inflation had also dropped from above 22 percent to a single digit and was expected to moderate further in the coming months.
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