China, Saudi Arabia assures Islamabad of providing financial package of $13b, says Pakistan FM Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's finance minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday said that China and Saudi Arabia will be providing $13 billion financial package to Islamabad.

China and Saudi Arabia will provide an additional amount of $8.8 billion and $4.2 billion, respectively, reported Geo News.

"China and Saudi Arabia have given assurances to Pakistan delegations under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during recent visits that they will take care of Islamabad's financial requirements till June 2023. Now the real effective exchange rate (REER) in terms of rupee against the US dollar has come down to Rs190 against the US dollar and no one will be allowed to play with our exchange rate," said Dar.

During PM's recent visits, China and Saudi Arabia has assured to take care of Islamabad's financial requirements till June 2023, reported Geo News.

This is in addition to the rollover of sovereign loan deposits, additional rollovers, commercial loans, additional SWAPS and jacking up oil facilities on deferred payment in line with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.

Both financial packages will ease the struggling economy of Pakistan as the foreign currency reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stand at $ 8.9 billion at the moment, reported Geo News.

Dar further said that China assured Pakistan that they would roll over $billion sovereign rollover deposits on all coming due dates.

The Chinese authorities, he said, also assured that the commercial loans of $3.3 billion will also be provided in due course of time, reported Geo News.

He said that China also granted a green signal for jacking up the SWAPS amount by providing an additional $ 1.45 billion so the total Chinese package would go up to $ 8.8 billion for the ongoing financial year. The Bank of China, he said, had already provided $ 200 million recently.

Sharing details about the outcome of Saudi Arabia's visit, the minister said that they also assured to consider Pakistan's request for an additional $ 3 billion in deposits and jacking up the oil facility on deferred payment by an additional $ 1.2 billion. Besides, an additional amount of $ 4.2 billion would be considered by Saudi Arabian authorities, reported Geo News.

He said that Saudi Arabia would also roll over existing deposits of $ 3 billion and their oil facility of $ 1.2 billion on deferred payment ($100 million on monthly basis) would continue till June 2023.

Therefore, the total Saudi package is expected to touch $ 8.4 billion. To another query, the minister said that Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman is going to visit Pakistan within the ongoing month, reported Geo News. (ANI)