It’s All In The Khan-Daan: A ‘Desperate’ Pakistan PM Visits Saudi To Seek Funds As Nation’s Payments Crisis Intensifies

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that his country was in a ‘desperate’ moment as he left for a conference in Saudi Arabia, Reuters has reported.

“Unless we get loans from friendly countries or the IMF (International Monetary Fund), we actually won’t have, in another two or three months, enough foreign exchange to service our debts or to pay for our imports. So we’re desperate at the moment.”

To prepare for the impending crisis, the Pakistani PM will be visiting China and Malaysia to seek assistance. After the official visit to Saudi Arabia, he will embark on a visit to Malaysia later this month and to China early next month, according to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The Pakistani central bank’s foreign reserves dropped this month to $8.1 billion, a four-year low. Pakistan’s reserves are barely enough to cover sovereign debt payments due through the end of the year. The country’s current account deficit has swelled to about $18 billion.

Imran Khan’s visit to Saudi Arabia is happening in the middle of a diplomatic crisis between the West and Saudi Arabia over the death of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. “The last thing the Muslim world needs is another conflict. The Trump administration is moving towards one,” Imran Khan told Middle East Eye while commenting on the matter.