Pakistan will start receiving US dollar inflows from next week SBP.

KARACHI -- State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Governor Jameel Ahmad said Wednesday that the country would start receiving US dollar inflows from next week, which would help shore up the central bank's rapidly depleting foreign exchange reserves. Addressing businessmen at the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), he acknowledged that the country's reserves had fallen quite low but added that projects in the pipeline would help improve them, according to a report by Mettis Global. In the absence of any dollar inflows from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or friendly countries, the central bank's forex reserves dropped to $4.34 billion in the week ending Jan 6, the lowest since February 2014. In his address, SBP Governor Ahmed explained the move to restrict imports, saying that banks had been directed to prioritise the opening of LCs for imports of food, pharmaceutical items, oil, agriculture-related items and raw material required by export-oriented industries. 'Of course, when we export, our inflows increase. We set some priorities to facilitate [exporters] so their businesses could...