KARACHI: The total foreign exchange reserves of the country improved $542 million to $9.268 billion by the week ended February 24, 2023, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday.

The total foreign exchange reserves of the country were $8.726 billion a week ago on February 17, 2023.

The country’s foreign exchange reserves hit the all-time high of $27.228 billion on August 27, 2021. Since then, these have declined by $17.96 billion.

The official foreign exchange reserves of the central bank also increased $556 million to $3.814 billion by the week ended February 24, 2023, compared with $3.258 billion a week ago.

The current level of the official foreign exchange reserves are only to provide import cover for around three weeks, or 23 days.

The import bill for January 2023 has been recorded at $4.856 billion, as per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS). The benchmark foreign exchange reserves of a central bank should be at a level to provide three months of import cover.

The central bank attributed the improvement in the foreign exchange reserves to the inflows of $700 million from China.

The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank witnessed a record high of $20.146 billion by the week ended August 27, 2021. Since then, these have dropped by $16.332 billion.

Meanwhile, the foreign exchange reserves of the commercial banks fell $14 million to $5.454 billion by the week ended February 24, 2023, compared with $5.468 billion a week ago.

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