Two billion dollars from Saudi Arabia land in SBP: Dar

Pakistan's total foreign exchange reserves now stand at around 11.7 billion dollars.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance and Revenue Ishaq Dar said on Tuesday that  Saudi Arabia has deposited $2 billion with 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 on last Friday. However, he added that the new position of exchange reserves would be reflected from coming Friday.

The minister on behalf of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the nation thanked Saudi leadership, particularly King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for the support.

He said Saudi Arabia had been playing the role of a brother for Pakistan and stood with it at every difficult occasion.

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

It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday the Fitch Ratings had 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

The be finance minister in a tweet said it was another positive development towards current economic revival journey.

The rating agency has identified key indicators that contributed to the positive development rating for the country 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.

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