New Delhi: In a big respite for Pakistan, which is grappling with a severe economic crisis, Saudi Arabia has agreed to revive its financial support to the country, including about $3 billion in safe deposits and $1.2bn to $1.5bn worth of oil supplies on deferred payments, according to a report in Dawn.
An agreement to this effect was reached during Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to the kingdom this week, a senior government official told Dawn. However, a formal announcement would be made by the PM's adviser on finance and revenue Shaukat Tarin and Energy Minister Hammad Azhar on Wednesday at a news conference.
The development was later confirmed in a midnight tweet by Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. "Saudi Arabia's announcement support Pakistan with 3 billion US dollars as deposit in Pakistan central bank and also financing refined petroleum products with 1.2 billion US dollars during the year," he wrote.
The Saudi government would immediately deposit $3bn in Pakistan's account for a year and keep it rolling at least until the completion of the IMF programme in October 2023, the official earlier said, as per the report.
The facility is expected to help Pakistan convince the IMF about its financing plan. In addition, the Saudi government would provide crude oil to Islamabad on deferred payments worth up to $1.5bn per annum.
Saudi Arabia had also provided $3bn in cash deposits and promised a $3bn oil facility to Pakistan to help the latter shore up its foreign exchange reserves in 2018. However, as the bilateral relations deteriorated later Islamabad had to return $2bn of the $3bn deposits, the report added.
