The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with Turkey to deposit $5 billion in the country’s central bank.
The kingdom announced the deal on Monday, March 6, 2023, through the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
This comes as Turkey is struggling with high inflation and the effects of last month’s massive earthquake.
Ahmed Al-Khateeb, the Saudi tourism minister and board chairman of the Saudi Fund for Development, signed an agreement with Turkish central bank governor Sahap Kavcioglu “to make a significant $5 billion deposit”, the Saudi government said in the statement.
“This deposit is a testament to the close cooperation and historical ties that exist between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Turkey and its brotherly people,” the statement said.
It said that the decision, which will shore up Turkey’s foreign reserves and help it combat inflation, was made on the order of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The kingdom gave no details on how the cash would be used or if it could call for the amount to be returned. Deposits of this nature can help increase a national currency’s exchange rates against other international currencies.
In December of last year, Minister of Finance Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan had announced his country’s intention to make the deposit.