SBP reserves slip for third week

The foreign exchange reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) continued to decline for the third consecutive week, falling by $72 million during the week ended Aug 1. This brings the SBP’s total reserves down to $14.232 billion. Since July 11, the central bank has lost a cumulative $294m in reserves, reversing part of the gains made by the end of the last fiscal year. The SBP had closed FY25 with $14.5bn in reserves — surpassing the target set under the IMF programme, a milestone that was widely seen as a policy success. However, maintaining this level has proven challenging amid ongoing external debt servicing pressures. The SBP attributed the recent decline to scheduled external debt repayments.