SBP reserves up $2bn since July 2025

KARACHI: The Middle East crisis, which does not look to end in the near future, would surely hit the foreign exchange reserves of countries like Pakistan.

However, data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Thursday showed that its reserves rose by $41 million to $16.341 billion during the week ended on March 6. In its latest monetary policy statement, it specifically mentioned that it has been buying dollars from the interbank market to improve its reserves.

Fortunately, the inflow of remittances continues to grow, as noted in February. The remittances in Feb were $3.3 billion, but were lower than the inflows in January.

Some currency market experts believe the inflows should be higher, as they usually grow by 20 per cent during Ramazan. Millions of Pakistanis are employed in the Middle East, and their total contribution during the first 8 months of FY26 was 53pc of total inflows.

However, the escalating war has threatened many jobs in the Middle East,........

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