The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) purchased $11.38 billion from the domestic foreign exchange (FX) market between June 2024 and November 2025, according to the latest figures released by the central bank.
The SBP discloses its foreign exchange market interventions with a three-month lag.
“Net FX intervention is defined as outright and swap purchases of foreign exchange minus outright and swap sales of foreign exchange by the SBP from/to banks in the interbank foreign exchange market,” says SBP.
A month-by-month breakdown shows the central bank bought $573 million in June 2024, $722 million in July, $569 million in August, $946 million in September, $1.03 billion in October, $1.15 billion in November and $536 million in December. In 2025, it acquired $154 million in January, $223 million in February, $860 million in March and $473 million in April.
The SBP continued its purchases with $522 million in May 2025, $502 million in June, $189 million in July, $257 million in August, $1.02 billion in September, $1.03 billion in October and $620 million in November 2025.
Despite these interventions and various inflows and outflows, the SBP’s foreign exchange reserves recorded mixed trends during the period, data released by Arif Habib Limited (AHL) showed.
Reserves rose by $280 million to $9.39 billion in June 2024 but fell by $169 million to $9.22 billion in July. They increased by $216 million to $9.44 billion in August, followed by a sharp jump of $1.3 billion to $10.74 billion in September. In October 2024, reserves climbed by $466 million to $11.2 billion and further increased by $835 million to $12.03 billion in November, before slipping by $306 million to $11.73 billion in December.
In 2025, reserves declined by $313 million to $11.4 billion in January and by $169 million to $11.25 billion in February. March saw a notable drop of $611 million to $10.64 billion, followed by a $364 million fall to $10.28 billion in April.
However, reserves rebounded by $1.24 billion to $11.5 billion in May and surged by $2.99 billion to $14.5 billion in June 2025. They then eased by $182 million to $14.3 billion in July, edged down $5 million in August, fell by $145 million to $14.2 billion in September, and recovered by $328 million to $14.5 billion in October. In November 2025, reserves increased by another $86 million to $14.6 billion.
As of February 13, 2026, the SBP’s reserves stand at $16.20 billion.
Analysts believe these interventions have been instrumental in strengthening the country’s FX reserves during the period and supporting external debt repayments.
