Pakistan’s forex reserves rise to $12.27 bln

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.
Pakistani officials are currently meeting the IMF in the Turkish city of Istanbul to discuss the country’s performance under the programme, and aiming to secure the roughly $875 million third tranche of the loan.