*ISLAMABAD: *The foreign exchange reserves held by the central bankcontinued to bleed even after the government borrowing spree continued andamassed a whopping $7.6 billion of loans.
As the forex reserves keep their depletion trend, the country requires$5-$7 billion to keep them adrift, reported *The News.*
The central bank has no other tool at its disposal to halt the fall inforeign exchange reserves aside letting the rupee devalue against thedollar.
Due to the central bank’s intervening twice in the currency markets in lastthree months, the country’s public debt has surged by around Rs830 billiondue to rupee depreciation against the dollar.
This would also add to debt servicing costs increasing in outgoingfinancial year 2017-18.
Official sources said the rupees depreciation against the dollar from Rs105to Rs116 would add to the public debt to surge by Rs830 billion duringpresent FY 2017-18, compared to $83 billion at end of FY 2016-17.
And the government is considering offering an amnesty scheme fornon-Pakistani nationals to declare their offshore assets, which wouldenable to bring back $4-5 billion but remains contingent since the countryrequires dollar inflows of $6 to $10 billion to offset the impact ofsliding forex reserves.
Pakistan obtained $7.608 billion loans from bilateral and multilateralcreditors during the first eight months of present (July-February) of FY2017-18.
The projected loans to be obtained by the government in this financialyear’s budget was determined at $8.094 billion during 2017-18.