ISLAMABAD, Jan 25 (APP):Pakistan on Friday received the last tranche of $1 billion from Saudi Arabia on account of financial aid package announced by the Kingdom four months before.
It is back to back tranche as the country received first payment of $1 billion from United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday which helped taking foreign exchange reserves’ level held by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to five months high.
In October 2018, Riyadh had announced a financial aid package for Pakistan worth of US $ three billion, and this was the last installment from Saudi Arabia, Chief Spokesman SBP, Abid Qamar said.
Talking to APP, he said that after receiving US $ 2 billion from brotherly countries, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves had reached to a consolidated level, however he did not confirm the exact figure of Forex reserves held by the central bank saying that figures of foreign exchange
reserves of SBP get changed everyday and the exact amount would be informed through a notification next week.
According to latest data of SBP, the total liquid foreign reserves held by the country stood at US$ 13.257 billion on January 18, as foreign reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan stood at US $ 6.636 billion and net foreign reserves held by commercial banks registered at US $6.621 billion.By adding US $2 billion received by the central bank from UAE and Saudi Arabia, the total reserves held by SBP have crossed US $ 8 billion level, first time after September 2018, when total forex reserves were recorded at US $8.408 billion and since then the forex reserves continued to fall every month.
It may be mentioned that earlier this week, Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) had formalized an amount of US $3 billion (AED11 billion) to SBP with an aim to support Pakistan’s economic growth and to achieve the long-term objectives of its monetary policy.The decision to formalize the deposit was made under the directives of the Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of AbuDhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
