Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $14.48 bln: Forbes

KARACHI, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose to $14.48 billion in the week that ended on Sept. 19 compared with $14.36 billion the previous week, the central bank said on Thursday.
Reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan rose to $10.94 billion from $10.84 billion a week earlier, while those held by commercial banks also edged up to $3.54 billion from $3.52 billion a week earlier, the central bank said in a statement.
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Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $12.27 bln: Forbes

KARACHI, July 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose by $430 million to $12.27 billion in the week that ended on July 4, a central bank spokesman said on Thursday.

The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves edged up to $8.96 billion from $8.55 billion a week earlier, while reserves held by commercial banks jumped to $3.31 billion from the previous week's $3.29 billion, chief spokesman Syed Wasimuddin said.

He said reserves rose sharply after the central bank received $500 million from the Asian Development Bank on June 30, which were shown in the current data.

Foreign reserves hit a record high of $16.5 billion in October 2007 but fell steadily to $6.6 billion by November last year, largely because of a soaring import bill.

Pakistan agreed in November to an International Monetary Fund emergency loan package of $7.6 billion to avert a balance of payments crisis and shore up reserves.

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Pakistan's economy Full fear and credit: Economist

PAKISTAN is one of the few countries in the world that enjoys more macroeconomic stability today than it did on September 14th, the day before the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers turned the world upside down. In those prelapsarian days Pakistan’s currency was tumbling; its foreign-exchange reserves covered barely two months of imports; and the cost of insuring its sovereign debt against default was almost 1,000 basis points (10%). Worst of all, the IMF had landed in Islamabad.

In the months since, Pakistan’s government has in effect conceded the Swat valley, a picturesque tourist spot, to the Taliban. It has suffered savage terrorist attacks on a police academy and the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. It has also handed the political initiative to its rivals in the opposition party. But despite all this turmoil, it has found some macroeconomic steel.

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Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $11.15 bln: Reuters

KARACHI, April 30 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose by $70 million to $11.15 billion in the week ended April 25, the central bank said on Thursday.

The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves rose to $7.83 billion from $7.79 billion a week earlier, while reserves held by commercial banks rose to $3.32 billion from $3.29 billion, the bank said.

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Pakistan's forex reserves rise to $11.22 bln: Reuters

KARACHI, April 16 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose by $50 million to $11.22 billion in the week ended April 11, the central bank said on Thursday.

The State Bank of Pakistan's reserves rose to $7.86 billion from $7.80 billion a week earlier while reserves held by commercial banks marginally fell to $3.36 billion from $3.37 billion, the bank said.

Pakistan recently received $500 million from the World Bank and $848 million from the International Monetary Fund, which was reflected in the data last week.

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FDI surged by 45 percent: Business Recorder

RIZWAN BHATTI

KARACHI (January 16 2009): The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has witnessed a raise of some 45 percent during December despite the looming clouds of war between Pakistan and India. The central bank on Thursday revealed that FDI has also crossed the mark of 2 billion dollars during December 2008 with a highest investment of 724 million dollars in a single month during the current fiscal year 2008-09.

"The surged in the FDI is a positive indication and reflected that confidence of foreign investors on Pakistan economy is still retained despite the tensions on Eastern boarders after Mombai attacks," economists said. They said that increasing FDI reflects that country's economic fundamentals are still strong despite several internal and external shocks and have ability to attract foreign investors.

Other economic indicators like foreign reserves and exports are also improving and would attract more investment in the future, they said. "With the current trend we are expecting that country's FDI would be around four billion dollars by the end of current fiscal year 2009", they added.With an increase of some 260.95 million dollars, FDI has reached 2.2327 billion dollars during the first half of current fiscal year 2008-09 (July-December), as compared to 2.0663 billion dollars during the same period of last fiscal year 2008.

Month-on-month basis the country has witnessed highest FDI in December as compared to other first five months of the current fiscal year, as foreign investors have invested some 724.28 million dollars in December 2008.

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Pakistan's foreign reserves rise to $10 bln: Reuters

KARACHI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves rose $340 million to $10 billion in the week that ended on Jan. 3, the central bank said on Friday.

(Reporting by Sahar Ahmed; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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Pakistan withdraws $1.7bn invested in US capital market: The News

By By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has withdrawn around $1.7 billion invested with selected fund managers out of total $3.2 billion largely put into various tools of the US Treasury and the US capital market, The News has learnt.

Now around $1.5 billion foreign currency reserves are lying with the fund managers, market sources said and added that the reserves management had raised several questions in the past during the tenure of Musharraf-Aziz regime because the country got minimum return compared to giving huge profits to those foreign investors who purchased Pakistani papers such as eurobond and others.

However, the State Bank of Pakistan confirms that it did not pay any penalty for withdrawal of its investment funds.“Anticipating such a situation, the SBP had included terminal clauses in all investment management agreements. Therefore, the central bank can call back funds from fund managers without any notice period and without incurring any penalty. All transactions are conducted on prevailing market prices,” the SBP categorically said.

In a written reply, the SBP also confirmed that during the last four fiscal years, $1.73 billion has been accumulated through a focused investment strategy that contributed as investment income on the part of forex reserves held by the SBP.“These returns were achieved on an overall average investment portfolio of $9.71bn during the last four years, despite holding a conservative and risk adverse portfolio in turbulent global markets,” it added.

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