The data released on Thursday by the State Bank of Pakistan disclosed that the foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan rose by $275million to $13,295 billion during the week.

On March 19, forex reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan were recorded at $13,295 million, up $275 million contrasted with $13,019.7 million in the earlier week. SBP gave no justification for the increase in reserves.

Besides, overall liquid foreign currency reserves held by the country, including net reserves held by banks other than SBP, remained at $20,434.6 million. Moreover, the net reserves held by banks added up to $7,139.6 million.

Pakistan got the first loan tranche of $991.4 million from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on July 09, 2019, which aided reinforce the reserves. Later in December 2019, the IMF delivered the second loan tranche of around $454 million.

The reserves also jumped on account of $2.5 billion in inflows from China. In 2020, the SBP effectively made foreign debt repayment of more than $1 billion on the development of Sukuk.

In December 2019, the foreign exchange reserves surpassed the $10 billion imprint attributable to inflows from multilateral lenders including $1.3 billion from the Asian Development Bank (ADB).