Saudi Minister Asserts Economic Resilience To Investors At Riyadh Conference
Riyadh, October 31, 2024 (Saudi Arabia Breaking News) – Saudi Arabia’s investment minister sought to assure investors on Tuesday the kingdom’s economy, the Middle East’s largest, was an attractive place for investors amid a year of regional conflict.
Khalid al Failh, speaking at Saudi Arabia’s annual government-organized investment conference in Riyadh, listed off what he said were positive sign that a major state-driven transformation of the economy away from oil was working.
“The tailwinds are much stronger than the headwinds”, he said at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) summit that included executives from top global banks and investment funds.
Saudi Arabia announced its Vision 2030 plan in 2016, which involves hundreds of billions of dollars of investments to wean the country’s economy off oil.
He said the non-oil economy had been “consistently” growing at a rare of 4% to 5% since 2017, including last year and this year.
“The list goes on”, Al Falih said, adding that 540 companies had committed to having a regional headquarters in the kingdom, which was ahead of the government’s target of 500 by 2030.
Saudi Arabia’s economy is highly dependent on oil revenues and the international Monetary Fund (IMF) this month further lowered its outlook for growth of its total economy to 1.5% due to the government’s policy to maintain lower oil production.
It estimates growth will accelerate to 4.6% next year.
The government had projected that it will post a fiscal deficit of 118 billion riyals ($32 billion), this year, equal to 2.9% of GDP, as it funds the economic transformation.
The government’s massive infrastructure projects, including building entirely new urban and industrial areas, also need foreign investments.
Many of the executives who spoke at the summit on Tuesday made little mention of the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, despite fears of conflagration.
Al Falih said that the geopolitical situation was “concerning” and the human aspect was “tragic” in comments about the region and Europe but without mentioning any one conflict.
“The economy of Saudi Arabia and the Vision 2030 is navigating these geopolitical and macroeconomic ang global challenges including trade tensions, political conflict, extremely well”, Al Falih said.