KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) further declined by $145 million to $10.16 billion during the week ended May 13.
The total reserves also decreased to $16.16bn while the holdings of the commercial banks were $5.997bn during the week, the central bank announced, with the level staying at less than 1.5 months of import cover.
Reserves held by the central bank have been on a declining trend as Pakistan seeks revival of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to end the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the US dollar crossed the 200-mark in interbank trade on Thursday for the first in the history of Pakistan.
The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) reported that the local currency closed at Rs200 against the greenback on Thursday with a fresh decline of Rs1.61, or 0.81%.
The domestic currency has maintained the downturn on the 10th consecutive working day as it cumulatively lost 7.7% or Rs14.31 in the last ten sessions.
On Thursday, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb announced that the government had imposed a ban on the import of all non-essential luxury items in an effort to take the country out of the existing financial crisis.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has reaffirmed the government’s commitment to undertake the reforms envisaged under the IMF programme and to complete the structural benchmarks as talks on the 7th Review of Extended Fund Facility (EFF) kicked off in Doha.
