Pakistan receives $2bn from Saudi Arabia: SBP

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Thursday that the country has received $2 billion from the Ministry of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in a post on X. State Bank of Pakistan has received funds of US$2 billion from Ministry of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the value date of 15April2026. — SBP (@StateBank_Pak) April 16, 2026 The central bank said the funds were received “in the value date of April 15, 2026”. The news comes a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first part of his three-nation tour amid ongoing active negotiation efforts for peace in the Middle East. The development came on the heels of Saudi Arabia’s decision to extend another financial bailout package to Pakistan, aimed at helping the country meet its external financing needs in line with International Monetary Fund (IMF) requirements. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia has committed $3 billion in additional deposits, with disbursement expected in the coming week. He further stated that the existing $5 billion Saudi deposit would no longer remain subject to the earlier annual rollover arrangement and would instead be extended for a longer period. Read: Saudi largesse plugs Pakistan's sudden reserve hole With the fresh loan, Saudi Arabia has become the single largest country that has placed a total of $8 billion in cash deposits with the central bank. A $3.5 billion hole has surfaced in the gross official foreign exchange reserves after the United Arab Emirates did not roll over its $3.5 billion debt despite making commitments with the IMF. Pakistan is expecting a total of $5 billion in new financial assistance from friendly countries to retain the reserves at their current levels. Aurangzeb said that the government remained committed to maintaining reserves in line with its obligations under the IMF, including the objective of achieving around $18 billion in reserves, equivalent to approximately 3.3 months of import cover, by the end of the fiscal year. Additional IMF loan The government sources told The Express Tribune that it has been decided to seek an additional loan from the IMF under the existing package and there were high chances that the IMF would honour Pakistan's request. The IMF's managing director has said that her organisation was expecting $50 billion in financing requests from the member countries to deal with the Middle East war shocks. The sources said that the IMF executive directors were also urging the Fund management to either augment the existing programmes or provide new financing windows. They added that seeking a new financing facility from the IMF may not be possible, but the existing programme can be augmented with additional loans. Pakistan can avail up to 600% of its quota in the IMF, and so far, it has exhausted 350% of the total quota. The sources said that there was a $2 billion to $2.5 billion window available, which Pakistan wanted to utilise to handle the effects of the Middle East war. The sources said that Pakistan was eligible to avail the additional IMF financing to deal with the war shocks. They said that there were very high chances that the IMF would accept Pakistan's request for increasing the loan size. Extending loan to Pakistan to deal with the war impact would not be a favour but supporting the country to pass through the crisis, said the sources. At 600% quota, Pakistan can avail a total of $16 billion loan and it has exhausted $9.5 billion. This makes a strong case for the augmentation under the existing Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.