China and Kuwait assure $4.3bn in loan rollovers after Saudi Arabia, taking friendly-country support to $7.3bn
China has assured the rollover of $4bn in deposits and Kuwait $300m, a day after Saudi Arabia extended its $3bn facility, covering $7.3bn of Pakistan's external repayments this fiscal year.
Pakistan has secured fresh assurances from China and Kuwait to roll over $4.3 billion in loans, a day after Saudi Arabia confirmed the extension of its own $3 billion facility, in a sequence of commitments that now covers $7.3 billion of the country's external repayments for the current fiscal year.
Finance Ministry sources said China had assured the rollover of $4 billion in deposits, with the arrangement to be finalised for March 2027, while Kuwait had agreed to extend $300 million. The three friendly countries are extending the funds for about a year, according to the sources cited by Dunya News.
The development follows Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb's confirmation on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia had rolled over the $3 billion financing it provided in April this year. Speaking to reporters at Parliament House after a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, he said the facility had been extended for a "reasonable period" but did not disclose the new maturity date.
"It has been extended and for a reasonable period. You don't need to worry as to for how long given the kind of strategic relationship we have," Aurangzeb said, when asked about the facility, which matured on 31 October under its original three-month term.
The minister said Pakistan did not need any additional financial assistance from Riyadh and could meet its external financing requirements even if the United States did not approve a proposed $10 billion liquidity support facility, whose prospects now appear to have faded.
Federal Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal told the Senate panel that Pakistan faced gross external financing repayments of $21.5 billion this fiscal year, including $17 billion in principal and $4 billion in interest. Of that, $7.3 billion is covered by bilateral rollovers: $4 billion in Chinese SAFE deposits, $3 billion from Saudi Arabia and $300 million from Kuwait.
Saudi Arabia has provided Pakistan with $8 billion in short-term financing in total. A separate $5 billion facility had already been extended until December 2028, while the latest $3 billion was provided in April to bridge a gap arising from $3.5 billion in repayments to the United Arab Emirates.
Aurangzeb also confirmed that the International Monetary Fund's executive board was expected to review Pakistan's $7 billion programme in December, when a further tranche of about $1.21 billion is expected to be released. The finance minister said he had held a very good meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, during the recent World Bank-IMF meetings in Bangkok.
Pakistan raised $3 billion from international markets in the first week of September through a Eurobond issue that attracted an order book of $6 billion, and the government is planning further issuances of Eurobonds, Panda bonds and dollar-settled bonds. The minister said the country's foreign exchange reserves were sufficient to cover around three months of imports, with the aim of lifting that to four months by the end of the year through capital markets.
Figures in this post were checked at 12:20 PKT on 5 November 2026. The rollovers remove a large block of near-term repayment pressure, but the relief is temporary: the underlying obligations remain, and the government will still need to manage about $21 billion in foreign payments this fiscal year while keeping its IMF programme on track.
This post is market news information only, not financial advice.
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