Forex reserves cross $20bn mark after three years
According to the weekly report issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday, the country's total liquid foreign exchange reserves increased by $1.94 billion during the previous week. Pakistan's total liquid reserves stood at $20.029 billion as of July 4, 2025, up from $18.09 billion on June 27, 2025. This marks the first time in over three years that reserves have crossed the $20 billion threshold.
Previously, Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves were recorded at $21.439 billion on March 18, 2022, but saw a sharp decline to $18.55 billion just a week later, on March 25, 2022. Since then, reserves had remained below the $20 billion level.
However, with the receipt of healthy foreign inflows, the country's total liquid reserves, including those held by the SBP and scheduled banks, have once again surpassed the $20 billion mark in the first week of July 2025.
During the week under review, SBP's foreign exchange reserves increased by $ 1.774 billion due to receipt of official inflows from international financial institutions. With current surged, the reserves held by the SBP reached $14.502 billion level as of July 4, 2025 compared to $12.729 billion as of June 27, 2025.
In addition, net foreign reserves held by commercial banks also witnessed an upward trend and increased by $163.2 million to reach the $5.526 billion mark a week earlier.
Overall, the SBP foreign exchange reserves rose by $5.12 billion to $14.51 billion by the end of the last fiscal year (FY25), surpassing the IMF's target of $13.9 billion. This increase aligned with the projection made by SBP Governor Jameel Ahmad, who had stated in January that despite significant external debt repayments, the central bank's reserves would exceed the $14 billion mark by the close of FY25.
Before closing the last fiscal year, SBP also received $3.1 billion in commercial loans on behalf of the Government of Pakistan, along with over $500 million in multilateral funding, significantly boosting the country's foreign exchange reserves at three-year peak level.
Economists said that overall Pakistan's external account has performed well with support of higher remittances and massive increase in the foreign exchange reserves. Pakistan has also successfully managed the external debt servicing during the last fiscal year but also managed to boost the foreign reserves.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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