FinMin confirms financial rescue action aimed at helping the country meet its external financing needs
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 statement on X.
State Bank of Pakistan has received funds of USD 2 billion from the Ministry of Finance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the denomination date of 15 April 2026.
— SBP (@StateBank_Pak) 16 April 2026
The central bank said the funds were received “on the value date of 15 April 2026”.
The news comes a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first leg of his three-nation tour amid ongoing active negotiating efforts for peace in the Middle East.
The development came on the heels of Saudi Arabia’s decision to extend another financial bailout 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 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 previous annual rollover arrangement and would instead be extended for a longer period.
Read: Saudi Arabian largesse closes Pakistan’s sudden reserves gap
With the fresh loan, Saudi Arabia has become the largest single country to have placed a total of $8 billion in cash deposits with the central bank. A $3.5 billion gap has appeared in official gross foreign exchange reserves after the United Arab Emirates failed to transfer its $3.5 billion debt despite making commitments to the IMF.
Pakistan expects a total of $5 billion in new financial assistance from friendly countries to maintain reserves at their current level.
Aurangzeb said the government remained committed to maintaining reserves in line with its commitments under the IMF, including the target of achieving about $18 billion in reserves, equivalent to approximately 3.3 months of import coverage, by the end of the fiscal year.
Additional IMF loans
This was reported by government sources Express Pakinomist 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 honor Pakistan’s request.
The IMF’s managing director has said her organization expected $50 billion in funding requests from member countries to deal with the shock of war in the Middle East.
The sources said IMF managing directors also urged the fund’s management to either expand existing programs or provide new financing windows. They added that it may not be possible to seek a new financing facility from the IMF, but the existing program can be expanded with additional loans.
Pakistan can use up to 600% of its quota in the IMF and so far the country has used up 350% of the total quota. The sources said there was a window of between $2 billion and $2.5 billion available that Pakistan wanted to use to deal with the effects of the Middle East war.
The sources said that Pakistan was entitled to avail the additional IMF financing to deal with the war shocks. They said there were very high chances that the IMF would accept Pakistan’s request to increase the loan size.
Extending loans to Pakistan to deal with the impact of the war would not be a favor but to support the country to get through the crisis, the sources said.
With a quota of 600%, Pakistan can avail a loan of a total of $16 billion, and the country has used up $9.5 billion. This is a strong case for the reinforcement under the existing Extended Fund Facility (EFF) programme.
