ISLAMABAD: In a positive development, the State Bank of Pakistan-held (SBP) foreign exchange reserves registered a major boost on Friday as the nation received $700 million from the China Development Bank (CDB).
Pakistan has been struggling to pay off its extraordinarily high levels of external debt and barely has enough dollars to cover less than three weeks’ worth of its imports, and at such a critical time, the $700 million deposit from China will act as a lifeline for the cash-strapped country.
The coalition government has been struggling to boost SBP-held foreign exchange reserves — which currently stand at $3.25 billion as of February 17. However, amid the delay in the revival of the $6.5 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme, the government continued to face difficulty in increasing the reserves.
