Pakistan’s forex reserves to reach $10bn by June

Finance Minister Senator Muhammad Aurangzeb has said that the foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank will reach $9 to 10 billion this fiscal year.

Despite paying off a billion dollars in bonds, the central bank’s reserves are currently just over $8 billion.

Addressing the inaugural session of the 7th Leaders in Islamic Business Summit in Islamabad, Aurangzeb said that he expects a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to be finalized by June-July.

He further said that the government has taken steps to stabilize the economy and promote development opportunities.

The federal minister said that the State Bank’s foreign exchange reserves have increased from $3.4 billion last year to more than $8 billion, which is equivalent to only 15 days of import cover.

The senator said that after receiving the last tranche from the IMF by the end of this week, our foreign exchange reserves will exceed $9 billion and by the end of June our reserves will be between $9 and 10 billion dollars, which will be equivalent to two months of import cover.

The finance minister rejected the negative impression about the IMF program and called it Pakistan’s program and said that if we want to get out of this trap, it is our need as a country.

Regarding the talks with the IMF, Aurangzeb said that the Pakistani officials had a very good discussion in Washington with an aim to move towards a bigger and longer program.

He said that when the IMF mission will visit Pakistan in mid-May, we will start discussions on the program’s features. We hope that if everything goes well and we agree on privatization then we will reach to staff-level agreement by the end of June.