Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves drop below $9 billion

Karachi: The country’s foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) continued to decline on a weekly basis, falling below $9 billion.

On July 22, the foreign currency reserves held by the SBP were recorded at $8,575.16 million, down $754 million compared with $9,328.6 on July 15, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday showed.

According to the central bank, the decrease came due to external debt and other payments.

Overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than the SBP, stood at $14,414.6 million.

Net reserves held by banks amounted to $5,839.5 million.

It should be noted that with the current foreign exchange reserves position, Pakistan has an import cover of less than 1.5 month.