Pak receives $ 500 mn from Qatar as first part of promised $ 3 bn

Islamabad: Pakistan on Saturday received the first tranche of USD 500 million from Qatar under the USD 3 billion package consisting of a foreign currency deposit and direct investment to help boost the country’s dwindling foreign-exchange reserves, according to a media report on Sunday.
The first tranche deposited with the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will help boost Pakistan’s dwindling foreign-exchange reserves.
The gas-rich nation last week announced that it would invest USD 3 billion in the form of deposits and direct investments after Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani visited Islamabad.
The Qatari foreign ministry said that with the new USD 3 billion investment package the size of the Qatari-Pakistani economic partnership will amount to USD 9 billion.
Qatar has not given the details of the USD 3 billion aid, but it signed three memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with Pakistan during the two-day visit of the Qatari Emir to Islamabad last week. Qatar has emerged as the fourth country to having extended a financial assistance package at times when Islamabad is facing an acute shortage of dollars. (PTI)