Moody's Global credit rating agency today announced fixing the sovereign rating of the kingdom at high credit grade of Aa3 with a stable future outlook. The agency commended the strength of the banking system in the kingdom. The announcement comes to confirm the strength of the Saudi economy in spite of developments in the world oil markets. On this occasion, Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf said that the success of the kingdom in maintaining its high credit rating despite the economic pressures that accompanied the decline in oil prices and anxiety associated with global markets reflects the solid foundations of the kingdom's economy and its ability to face periodic fluctuations and the success of the economic policies adopted and implemented by the government of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. For his part, Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency Dr. Fahd bin Abdullah Al-Mubarak stressed that the kingdom is pushing ahead with its policy to diversify sources of income and which manifested itself in the large rises in the level of government spending on infrastructure and development projects while maintaining the levels of public debt, which is still low compared with international rates. The governor added that Moody's fixing of the sovereign rating of the kingdom at such a high grade confirms the success of the kingdom's prudent policy which emphasizes the strengthening of reserves to strengthen the solvency of the state.
