Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman receives annual reports of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency for the financial years of 2013 and 2014 during a reception at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Tuesday. SAMA Governor Fahd Al-Mubarak handed the reports to the King. — SPA Saudi Gazette report
JEDDAH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman commended the Kingdom's excellent financial position thanks to the security and stability prevailing in the country. The King praised the role of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) for the continued robust growth of the economy. King Salman made these remarks while receiving the annual SAMA reports for the financial years of 2013 and 2014. SAMA Governor Fahd Al-Mubarak handed the reports to the King during a reception at Al-Salam Palace here on Tuesday. The reception was attended by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, Minister of Culture and Information Adel Al-Turaifi, Deputy Governor of SAMA Abdul Aziz Al-Fareeh and other senior officials of the central bank, the Saudi Press Agency reported. A copy of the report was also presented to the crown prince. Speaking on the occasion, SAMA Governor Al-Mubarak expected that the Kingdom's economy would witness comprehensive growth during the year 2015 and in the coming years. The reports showed that the gross domestic product (GDP) posted a growth of 3.5 percent against the global average of 3.4 percent and the growth rate of 2.7 percent in 2013. The private sector recorded a growth of 5.6 percent last year. The report pointed out that the public funding witnessed the highest-ever spending in its history with around SR1,100 billion, representing 40 percent of the GDP while public debt shrank to 1.6 percent of the GDP. The balance of payment achieved surplus for the 16th year in a row, reaching around SR288 billion in 2014. The general index of cost of living maintained a steady decline from around six percent in 2008 to less than 2.8 percent last year, the report said. The SAMA governor praised the King's decision to merge the economic and development affairs in a single apex body so as to unify economic decisions and improve efficiency, besides coordinating the visions, strategies and activities of the concerned government agencies to realize integrated and sustainable development. “Decisions were taken to revamp and reorganize economic sectors with an objective to raise the standard of efficiency and competitiveness as well as supporting best utilization of the economic resources,” Al-Mubarak said. “The Kingdom's economic policies focused on certain vital fields, including developing human resources and infrastructure projects, diversifying the base of production, and enhancing the state's financial reserves with the objective of tackling unexpected developments in the global oil market,” he said. Al-Mubarak said the good position of the global oil market over the last few years has produced positive impact on the Kingdom's public finance sector, resulting in a surge in the volume of actual spending during the last five years to SR4.4 trillion, of which 30 percent was spent on various capital projects. “However, a fall in prices of oil since the second half of 2014 has become a renewed challenge to the national economy and this necessitated taking measures aimed at ideal exploitation of the available resources to continue development,” Al-Mubarak said. The central bank chief also highlighted the Kingdom's global role in maintaining the stability and balance of the oil market in the medium and long run in view of serving the nation's interests through safeguarding the market and consolidating its relations with its customers worldwide. The reports highlighted the Kingdom's monetary and banking developments as well as balance of payment, in addition to the latest developments in the external sector, public finance, oil and non-oil sectors including insurance, finance and capital market.
