The State Bank of Pakistan bought a net $863 million from the interbank foreign exchange market in July 2026, continuing its steady accumulation of dollars even though Pakistan ran a current account deficit of $445 million that month. The July purchases were higher than the $841 million bought in June and far above the $189 million bought in July a year earlier.
Over the four years to now, the central bank has bought about $30 billion from the interbank market, according to the governor’s remarks reported by Business Recorder, with around $12 billion used for interest payments and the rest used to build reserves. Gross reserves have risen from about $3 billion at the start of 2023 to about $21.5 billion, enough for roughly three months of imports.
The governor expects reserves to reach $23 billion by December 2026 and $25 billion by June 2027. For ordinary readers, a larger reserve cushion means more room to pay for imports and meet debt payments without sudden pressure on the rupee, though the bank must still balance buying dollars against the needs of importers and exporters.
Sources: Business Recorder (BR Research), Nukta (SBP data). Written in our own words for information only.