Islamabad (Web Desk/Agencies): Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar on Tuesday said that the brotherly country Saudi Arabia has deposited $2 billion with State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), increasing the total foreign exchange reserves to around $11.7 billion.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the minister said that Saudi Arabia had made an announcement recently that it would deposit its $2 billion with SBP.
"This would be a straight away increase in the country’s foreign exchange reserves that stood at around $9.7 billion on last Friday," he said, 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, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Asim Munir, and the nation thanked Saudi Leadership particularly King Salman, Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman for this support.
He said Saudi Arabia has been playing role of a brother for Pakistan and stands with it at every occasion.
Dar said that 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.
Earlier on Monday, the global rating agency Fitch s 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.
Following the development, the 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.