ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves held by the central bank have increased to $4.4 billion after receiving $300 million loan from China in last week. “During the week ended on April 14, SBP reserves increased by US$ 394 million to US$ 4,432.5 million. The increase in SBP reserves is mainly due to the receipt of US$ 300 million of GoP commercial loan,” said State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday. The total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$ 9,964.9 million as of 14-April-2023. The break-up of the foreign reserves position is as foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan are US$ 4.432 billion and net foreign reserves held by commercial banks are US$ 5,532 billion. Out of Chinese Bank’s ICBC approved facility of $1.3 billion (which was earlier repaid by Pakistan), State Bank of Pakistan has received back third and last disbursement yesterday in its account amounting to $300 million. Last month, the Chinese lender had approved a rollover of a $1.3 billion loan for Pakistan. Following the announcement, the Chinese bank deposited $500 million — the first disbursement — on March 4 and then the second tranche of an equivalent amount was released on March 17. The country’s foreign exchange reserves were on the declining side mainly due to the repayment of previous loans. The pace of foreign borrowing has slowed down mainly due to the absence of International Monetary Fund’s loan programme as Pakistan received only $7.76 billion in nine months, which was not enough to build the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
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