ISLAMABAD – Minister Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry Thursday announced that all legal arrangements have been finalised for $3 billion deposits from Saudi Arabia and the amount would be released during the ongoing week.
Making the announcement on Twitter, the information minister said that Saudi Arabia has also allowed direct flights from Pakistan.
تین اچھی خبریں 1) پٹرولیم ڈیلرز ایسوسیشن ایشن نے ہڑتال ختم کر دی 2) سعودی عرب نے پاکستان سے براہ راست فلائٹس شروع کرنے کا اعلان کر دیا 3) سعودی عرب سے تین ارب ڈالر کی ٹرانسفر میں تمام قانونی معاملات طے ہوگئے اور یہ ڈالر اس ہفتے پاکستان کو مل جائینگے — Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 25, 2021 link
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.
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.