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Pakistan still plans to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) despite Saudi Arabia agreeing to offer a $6 billion rescue package, Pakistan's finance ministry said on Wednesday.
"Yes, We are going ahead into program negotiations with (IMF) in first week of November," Noor Ahmed, spokesman for Pakistan's finance ministry, told Reuters in a text message.
On Tuesday, Islamabad announced Saudi Arabia had agreed to give Pakistan $3 billion in foreign currency support for a year and a further loan worth up to $3 billion in deferred payments for oil imports to help stave off a current account crisis.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday met with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan at Riyadh's Al-Yamamah Palace, with whom he discussed bilateral ties and regional developments.According to the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the two men “reviewed the close relations between the two countries and the latest developments in the region”.Khan's current visit to Saudi Arabia is his second since he assumed the Pakistani premiership in August.Last month, King Salman met with Khan in Jeddah -- during the latter’s first official trip abroad -- to discuss bilateral ties and prospects for enhanced cooperation.Khan is now visiting Riyadh to take part in a high-profile investment conference currently underway in the Saudi capital.Imran Khan leaves for Saudi conference saying Pakistan 'desperate' for loansPakistan ends military operations in Swat valleyWhen asked about the furor caused by the disappearance early this month of a Saudi journalist, Khan told The Independent on Monday: "What happened in Turkey is just shocking… But that aside, the reason I have to take this opportunity [to attend the Riyadh conference] is because we [Pakistan]… have the worst debt crisis in our history.”A columnist for the Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi was last seen on Oct. 2 when he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Pakistan, Russia hold joint military drillsPakistan welcomes Turkish-Saudi contacts on KhashoggiAfter days of denying any knowledge of his whereabouts, Saudi officials last week admitted that Khashoggi had died inside the consulate.Since then, King Salman has sacked the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence agency (along with a top aide), while also ordering the arrest of 18 suspects in the case.On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir admitted that Khashoggi had been killed inside the consulate, but insisted that Mohamed bin Salman -- Saudi Arabia’s high-profile crown prince -- had not been aware of it.Al-Jubeir has also posited the notion that Khashoggi’s presumed murder was a “rogue operation” carried out by Saudi intelligence operatives.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman meets Pakistani PM in Riyadh
Pakistan is seeking loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and friendly countries to reservice debt and shore up its economy, the country's prime minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday."What we are hoping is that we do a bit of both, get a loan from IMF and other loans from friendly governments," Khan told an audience at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh.Khan, who was elected prime minister in July, is in Saudi Arabia for the second time this month seeking to shore up financial aid as the country reels from a looming balance of payments crisis.The country also needs two oil refineries to meet demand, and they are talking to Saudi investors about the projects, Khan said, adding Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is organising a delegation of Saudi businessmen to invest in Pakistan.
Pakistan PM seeks loans to reservice debts, investments