Saudi Arabia has agreed to restore its financial support to Pakistan which will include safe deposits of about $3 billion and oil supplies of $1.2bn to $1.5bn on deferred payments, Dawn reported.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had visited the kingdom this week for agreement in this regard, as per reports and sources of Dawn.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later confirmed Saudi's assistance to Pakistan in a midnight tweet. The tweet said that Saudi Arabia has announced support to Pakistan with 3 billion US dollars as a deposit in Pakistan central bank, in addition to financing refined petroleum products worth 1.2 billion US dollars during the year.
"Saudi Arabia's announcement support Pakistan with 3 billion US dollars as a deposit in Pakistan central bank and also financing refined petroleum products with 1.2 billion US dollars during the year, " said the tweet
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.
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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.
