Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves drop by $627 million

KARACHI: Foreign exchange reserves of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) dropped by $627 million to $8.049 billion on Thursday.

Overall Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves reached $14.893 billion with reserves at other banks remaining unchanged at $6.485 billion.

According to the central bank, reserves fell due to external debt servicing and other official payments.

On September 29, the State Bank increased the target policy rate by 100 basis points to 8.5 per cent effective from October 1, 2018. The increase was implemented to further consolidate efforts required to ensure macroeconomic stability, the central bank said in a statement.

The central bank said that though political uncertainty has relatively subsided due to a smooth transition between governments, “concerns on the economic front continue to persist on the back of rising inflation and large twin deficits that are likely to compromise the sustainability of the high real economic growth path”.