Finance: Cautious optimism in order

PAKISTAN’S total foreign exchange reserves rose to $16.04 billion by the end of January 2025 from $13.99bn in June 2024, according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). This means that during the first seven months of this fiscal year, $2.05bn has been added to the reserves. However, the $11.42bn held by the SBP is still insufficient to cover three months of import bills. The remaining reserves, around $4.63bn, belong to commercial banks. The build-up in reserves became possible as the country continued borrowing from the International Monetary Fund and got its foreign debts owed to China, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia rolled over. Last week, Saudi Arabia agreed to provide an estimated $1.2bn worth of oil on deferred payments.