State Bank receives another US$ one bln Saudi tranche

KARACHI: Pakistan’s central bank has received another installment of one billion dollars from Saudi Arabia’s bailout package for Pakistan.

A spokesman of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has said that the bank has received another tranche of one billion US dollars from the package, the kingdom had announced after visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The central bank has so far received two bln dollars from Saudi Arabia, the spokesman said.

After fresh tranche of the Saudi package the foreign exchange reserves of the country have reached to US 9.24 bln dollars, the spokesman further said.

According to the spokesman, the next installment of the bailout likely to be received in January next year.

The Saudi government had in October agreed to provide Pakistan $ three bln for foreign currency support for a year to address the country’s balance of payments crisis. The Kingdom had also agreed to provide Islamabad a one year deferred payment facility for import of oil, worth up to another three billion dollars.

Pakistan had received the first installment of one billion dollars from Saudi government on November 9, which provided relief to the balance of payments woes of the country.

Fresh Saudi tranche will provide relief from pressure at foreign exchange reserves and stabilize the value of the rupee against US dollar.