The Finance Minister, Dr Ibrahim Al-Assaf, said that the Kingdom’s economic performance over the past five months has been significantly better than expected. He also said that the decline in exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against the euro would not affect the Kingdom.
“The results of the Kingdom’s budget for the past five months are good, and exceed our expectations, despite the extraordinary circumstances of the international oil market in the first half of the year,” Al-Assaf said to reporters after opening the annual meeting of contractors at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Referring to the fall in the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar against other major currencies, Al-Assaf said that it would not affect the Kingdom’s economy. “The rise in the exchange rate of the euro against the dollar will affect countries whose currencies are pegged to the dollar. Our balance of payment is in a good position. We have a surplus in our current account, despite the rise in euro prices, and there will not be any effect,” he said. He said that many importers had adopted different methods to offset the effect of fluctuations in exchange rates. “Reaching an agreement with banks to have a fixed exchange rate for the euro is one of them. This will reduce the effect of exchange rate fluctuation on products imported from the euro zone,” he added.
Source: SPA
