SBP reserves hit six-month high, shoot above $8.2bn

The State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) foreign exchange reserves hit an almost six-month high to $8.221 billion after an inflow of $464 million during the week ending on Dec 29, the central bank announced on Thursday. However, the inflow of $853m in the preceding week helped to increase the SBP’s reserves cumulatively by $1.31bn. Despite this massive increase in two weeks, the rupee did not show much enthusiasm and remained calm against the US dollar as it noted an increase of just five paise in the interbank market. The closing price of the dollar in the banking market was Rs281.67 on Thursday compared to Rs281.72 a day before.