Karachi: Pakistan foreign exchange reserves continued to witness substantial depletion by every passing month since July 2011, showing a decline of $1.64 billion in the past eight months particularly on debt-service payment and high import bill.
The foreign exchange level reached at 17 months low level on constant contraction, State Bank of Pakistan data showed.
The foreign exchange reserves reached all-time high level at $18.243 billion in July 2011. Since then, it started declining constantly with slight recovery were seen one or two times after inflows of foreign exchange holding by central and commercial banks.
As of February 17, 2012 the foreign reserved held by central bank has reached to $12.21 billion as compared with $14.78 billion reserves level recorded in July 2011, State Bank of Pakistan data showed.
On the contrary, the foreign exchange held by scheduled bank increased to $4.43 billion till February 17 as against $3.5 billion recorded in July 2011.
The depleting foreign exchange reserves continued to pressurize the rupee position against dollar, which already cross 90 level and likely to go down further in the coming months.
Economists said that the repayment of the IMF loans tend to evaporate a significant part of foreign exchange reserves in the months to come, which will also hit the value of the rupee against dollar and widen the deficit of current account.
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