Forex reserves rise to $14.7 billion

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the country rose to $14.748 billion in the first week of October mainly on account of fresh inflows of multilateral loans.

The SBP reported on Thursday that its forex holdings rose to $11.168 billion with the inflow of $410 million from the donor agencies. Commercial banksholdings amounted to $3.580 billion.

The country’s reserves have been on the rise, mainly thanks to borrowing from the IMF which has disbursed $5.148 billion since November 2008.

In November 2008, Pakistan struck a deal with the IMF for emergency loan package of $7.6 billion which was increased to $11.3 billion in July.

At the same time the current account imbalances also improved as massive expenses on account of oil imports fell on lower on lower international oil prices, reducing the trade deficit.