09-09-2008, 03:55 PM
[center]<b><span style='font-size:21pt;line-height:100%'>President Zardari needs $10 billion to stay afloat : Farrukh Saleem</span></b> <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo-->[/center]
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>ISLAMABAD : Last month, we paid out $1 billion more than we earned. Last month was actually a good month because for the last nine months we have been loosing an average $1.3 billion every month. Loosing dollars at that rate means that the State Bank will not be able to pay back the principal, amounting to $500 million due for repayment in the middle of Feb 2009.
As of the last day of Dec 2007, the SBP's foreign exchange reserves stood at $15,589 million. By the end of August 2008, total reserves had dropped to $9,129 million out of which reserves with SBP were a mere $5,759 million. After accounting for gold and forward sales, the SBP is left with under $4,000 million. At the current rate of reserve depletion, the SBP desperately needs a multi-billion dollar cash injection by end of September.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->