Foreign currency reserves rise to 4-week high

Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to have bottomed out at a nine-year low below $3 billion a couple of weeks ago. Talking to The Express Tribune, Pak-Kuwait Investment Company Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said, “The foreign exchange reserves have bottomed out.”Recalling that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the country would receive $700 million from China this week, he said that “the reserves are expected to gradually rise from here onwards”. “Surplus supply of US dollars in the inter-bank market has prompted the central bank to intervene (buy the surplus),” a source said. Earlier, a better exchange rate in the black market encouraged some traders and non-resident Pakistanis to receive and send funds through the illegal Hawala-Hundi operators. Earlier, the black market was offering the exchange rate of Rs250-270/$, it was learnt.