ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan on Monday signed an agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development to defer by one year a $1.2 billion payment on the country’s oil imports, the country’s prime minister office said.
Pakistan’s state-run television showed the signing ceremony live ahead of a delegation of the fund led by its CEO Sultan Bin Abdul Rehman Al Marshad called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif welcomed the signing of the oil import financing facility, the office said in a statement. Pakistan will receive the oil on deferred payment for one year, it said.
“This project will strengthen Pakistan’s economic resilience by securing a stable supply of petroleum products while reducing immediate fiscal burdens,” the prime minister office said.
It said the fund will provide an amount of $41 million for a water supply scheme to help access to clean drinking water for 150,000 local people of a district I northwest Pakistan.
Petroleum products mostly from Saudi Arabia make the major chuck of Pakistan’s import bill. The Saudi facility to defer the payment can help Islamabad boost its foreign reserves ahead of the first review of a $7 billion IMF bailout in March.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by David Goodman and David Evans)
