The Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) Ahmed Alkholifey said that "Saudi Arabia's economic growth this year will not be far from the IMF's forecast." The IMF expects the kingdom's economy to grow 1.9 percent compared to 2.2 percent last year.”
"It is too early to assess the impact of Aramco's attacks on the economy," Alkholifey said. "The central bank does not expect any shortage of liquidity, but is ready to support the market if necessary."
He added: "we do not expect Aramco's IPO to affect the liquidity in the banking sector, as all indicators are still strong, since the loan-to-deposit ratio remains at 78 percent and the maximum is 90 percent."
The governor of SAMA revealed the rise in the balance of payments surplus, which exceeded 113 billion riyals with the decline of remittances of foreign workers, pointing out that "the foreign reserves of the Kingdom exceeded 507 billion dollars in last August.”
He also revealed that the remittances of foreign workers declined 12% in the first half to 73 billion riyals from 83 billion riyals in the first half of last year, stressing that "the capital adequacy ratio of the Saudi banking sector is still at 20 percent."
Source (Alarabiya.net, Edited)
