By Innovation-sa on September 6, 2018 in News
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman was presented with the 54th annual report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) on Wednesday in the presence of Minister of Finance Al-Jadaan, SAMA Governer Dr.Ahmed Al-Khulaifi and the governor’s deputies during a reception at Al-Salam Palace.
The report, which examines the economic and financial developments of the country in 2017 indicated that despite a GDP drop of 0.86 percent, the Saudi economy still saw several positive indicators during the last year.
Even though the GDP of the oil sector contracted by 3.09 percent, the non-oil sector registered a positive GDP growth of 1.05 percent. The average consumer index decreased by 0.9 percent in 2017 compared to a growth of 2.0 percent in 2016.
Al-Khulaifi said that one major positive indicator witnessed by the country is the Kingdom’s current account of the balance of payments, which recorded a surplus of SR57.1 billion in 2017 against a deficit of SR89.4 billion in 2016.
He added that the addition of Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in a number of global market indexes such as Morgan Stanley, Standard & Poor’s(S&P) and FTSE Index for emerging markets will contribute to enhancing the efficiency of the financial market and increasing market attractiveness for Saudi and foreign investors.
Al-Khulaifi said that accelerating the growth of the financial sector was one of SAMA’s key tasks and expressed hope that the local economy would continue to adjust to reforms adopted during the last two years by attaining good growth rates and contributing to the goals of the Kingdom.
King Salman praised SAMA’s efforts in serving the national economy and achieving desired objectives as part of Vision 2030.
Arab News – 05 September 2018