Islamabad: Finance Minister Ishaq Dare has said that cash shortage Pakistan has received additional financial assistance of around 13 billion dollars from its traditional allies China and Saudi Arabia. The government is trying to stabilize the weak economy of the country. Dar said, under the new financial assistance, Pakistan will get about 9 billion dollars from China and 4 billion dollars from Saudi Arabia along with an investment guarantee of about 20 billion dollars. Dawn newspaper has reported.
Promised security of financial support
The finance minister said that during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s recent visit to Beijing, the Chinese leadership had pledged to extend US$4 billion in sovereign loans, US$3.3 billion in commercial bank loan refinancing and about US$1.45 billion in currency swaps – from 30 billion yuan to 40 billion yuan. A total of $8.75 billion has been worked on. Dar, who recently took over as Pakistan’s new finance minister from his predecessor Miftah Ismail, said, “They promised security of financial assistance.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t let you down,” Chinese President Xi Jinping was quoted as saying to Sharif.