From (left to right) Housing Minister Shwaish Al-Dowaihy, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Economy and Planning Muhammad Al-Jasser, and Secretary General of Supreme Economic Council Majid Al-Moneef at the opening of the Saudi Euromoney Conference 2014 in Riyadh on Tuesday. – SPA Saudi Gazette report
RIYADH – Saudi economy has achieved a real growth of around 3.8 percent the past year despite lower growth in the oil sector, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf said at the opening of the two-day Saudi Euromoney Conference here on Tuesday. The 9th version of the Saudi Euromoney Conference 2014, which is organized by Ministry of Finance, kicked off under the title ‘Innovation and Competition Change Dynamics of Globalization', with the participation of leaders and international figures of the global financial sector. Al-Assaf said that the global economy is seeing a good recovery, but there are still many challenges. He added that national economy is sound thanks to the policies and reforms initiated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. Minister of Housing Shwaish Al-Dowaihy said the coming period will see significant growth in the housing sector. Minister of Economy and Planning Muhammad Al-Jasser said the efforts of economic policy making in the Kingdom have focused over the past few years on enhancing the productivity of the workforce and increasing the productivity of various sectors. He highlighted importance of stimulating innovation in improving the competitiveness of countries. Secretary General of the Supreme Economic Council Majid Al-Moneef said the average rate of real economic growth was 6.5 percent per year which was the result of increased public revenues at a rate of 19 percent per annum. Since the global financial crisis, the Kingdom has continued with its expansionary policy with significant allocations for education, health and infrastructure. For 2014 the Kingdom has announced a budget of $228 billion. Despite a drop in oil revenue in 2013, there was decent growth from non-oil sources which have helped to cushion the negative effect and a telling sign that the government's policy for economic diversification and encouraging the private sector are finally working. However there are challenges that remain here. With Saudi Arabia's plethora of sector projects, the administrative and technical capacities of both government agencies and the private sector have been stretched to the optimum limit. In the labor market the number of Saudi citizens working in the private sector has doubled since the introduction of government reforms, but the private sector remains largely an unattractive spot compared to the public sector due to lower pay, benefits and job security.
