Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $11.84 bln
Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose by $70 million to $11.84 billion in the week that ended on June 27, compared with $11.77 billion the previous week, a central bank spokesman said on Thursday.
The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves edged up to $8.55 billion from $8.45 billion a week earlier. Reserves held by commercial banks fell to $3.29 billion from the previous week's $3.32 billion, the spokesman said.
Foreign reserves hit a record high of $16.5 billion in October 2007 but fell steadily to $6.6 billion by November last year, largely because of a soaring import bill.
Pakistan agreed in November to an International Monetary Fund emergency loan package of $7.6 billion to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.
The central bank said on Wednesday it had received $500 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan announced last week, receipt of which would be booked for the 2008/09 financial year that ended on Tuesday.
The loan amount will be reflected in data on foreign exchange reserves to be released on July 9.