Pula Fund recovery continues

Mbongeni Mguni | Thursday May 16, 2019 12:21

 

The Pula Fund, which is the country’s sovereign wealth fund housing decades of budget surpluses and diamond revenues, endured a horror period at the end of 2018 where it lost P6.7 billion alone on losses in global equities investments.

Statistics released by the Bank of Botswana this week show that from P47.5 billion in December 2018, the Pula Fund pulled back to P48.2 billion in January 2019, then P49.99 billion February.

The liquidity portfolio, or the portion of foreign reserves made available for local transactional purposes, declined from P23.4 billion in January 2019 to P21.6 billion in February suggesting that part of the Pula Fund’s recovery was due to transfers associated with a lower need in the market for short term foreign currency. 

The central bank is required to make available enough foreign currency in the market to meet a minimum of three months’ demand.