Saudi Arabia deposits $2bn with State Bank of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that the brotherly country Saudi Arabia has deposited $2 billion with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), increasing the total foreign exchange reserves to around $11.7 billion.

“Our brother country Saudi Arabia had made an announcement recently that it would deposit its $2 billion with State Bank of Pakistan. They have placed the deposits and the amount has been credited to SBP,” the minister said at a press conference.

He said this would be a straight away increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves that stood at around $9.7 billion till last Friday. He, however, added that the new position of exchange reserves would be reflected from coming Friday.

The minister on behalf of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir and the nation thanked the Saudi leadership — particularly King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman — for this support.

He said Saudi Arabia has been playing role of a brother for Pakistan and stands with it on every occasion.

The minister said that some more good developments would follow and lead the economy towards growth, adding that the economy of the country has already been stabilised with the efforts of the incumbent government.

It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday, Fitch Ratings upgraded Pakistan’s long-term foreign-currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to ‘CCC’ from ‘CCC-’, indicating a positive development towards the betterment of the country’s economy.

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar, in a tweet, said it was another positive development towards the current economic revival journey.

The rating agency has identified key indicators that contributed to the positive development rating for Pakistan which include improvement in easing external financing risks.

The upgrade in ratings reflects Pakistan’s improved external liquidity and funding conditions following its Staff-Level Agreement (SLA) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a nine-month Stand-by Arrangement (SBA) in June.