ISLAMABAD: Fawad Chaudhry, the Minister of Information and Broadcasting, revealed on Thursday that all legal arrangements for a $3 billion deposit from Saudi Arabia had been finalised and that the money will be transferred this week.
Saudi Arabia has also permitted direct flights from Pakistan, according to the information minister, who made the announcement on Twitter.
During PM Imran Khan’s visit earlier in October, Riyadh had agreed to revive its financial support to Islamabad, including about $3 billion in safe deposits and $1.2bn worth of oil supplies on deferred payments.
At a time when the country’s foreign exchange reserves were on the decline, this Saudi facility in the shape of $3 billion deposits would help the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) shore up its dwindling foreign exchange reserves.
“The SBP has finalised all arrangements and now everything is in place and the amount of the agreed deposit will be received within the next couple of days,” top official sources confirmed.
Saudi Arabia will charge around 3.2 to 3.5% markup on annual basis for this deposit amount.
According to the central bank, Pakistan’s total liquid foreign reserves stood at $22.773 billion on November 19, 2021. The break-up of the figures shows that foreign reserves held by the SBP were standing at $16.254 billion and net foreign reserves held by commercial banks were standing at $6.519 billion.
During the week ended on November 19, 2021, the SBP’s reserves decreased by $691 million to $16.254 billion, mainly due to external debt repayments.
Official sources also said Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide $1.2 billion for the provision of refined POL products and the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) was negotiating on behalf of the government of Pakistan.
Responding to queries, Spokesperson for Adviser to PM on Finance Muzammil Aslam said Pakistan was likely to get $7 billion from just three sources during the next 60 days.
Saudi Arabia’s $3 billion deposits, the Saudi Oil Facility’s $1.2 billion on deferred payments, the Islamic Development Bank’s $800 million oil facility, the Sukuk bond’s $1 billion, and the IMF’s $1 billion are among them.
He stated that all of these dollar inflows would be sufficient to relieve pressure on existing import bills.
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