As of November 2017, the SBP’s official foreign currency reserves were $12.66 billion including $5.8 billion worth of currency swaps and forward contracts. Despite showing $5.8 billion as part of its own reserves, the SBP has also included the same amount in the total $6.01 billion reserves held by commercial banks. Out of $5.8 billion, $1.68 billion was obtained for one month, $2.46 billion for up to three months and $1.7 billion for up to one year, according to the SBP. However, to protect depositors’ reserves, the central bank had started separately reporting both the official and private currency reserves. They said that the $5.8 billion amount has to be excluded from the SBP’s gross official reserves of $15.1 billion, which will bring down the reserves to $9.3 billion.

Source: The Express Tribune December 09, 2017 04:52 UTC