Commenting on a recent report issued by the Standard and Poor's (S and P) index, which gave the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ‘A+’ for handling the domestic debit, ‘A’ for handling the long-term foreign currency debit and described the Kingdom’s economic future perspective as “stable”, the Minister of Finance, Dr Ibrahim Al-Assaf, said that this distinguished classification is a qualitative boost for the Saudi economy and will enhance the Kingdom’s reputation as provider of an attractive investment environment.
Al-Assaf described the classification as particularly distinguished given the current international economic situation, and said that it is attributed by S and P, the most famous establishment in this field.
S and P issued the classification after conducting thorough studies of the Saudi economic indexes, and meeting with several senior officials in the public and private sectors. He said that the report highlighted the strong potential of the Saudi economy, citing the stability of the local currency exchange rate, strength of banking sector, efforts exerted to boost economic openness, and constitutional restructuring, including implementation of the new financial market system and the cooperative insurance companies control system.
The report criticized the Saudi economy for its being considerably reliant on oil exports, and its failure, thus far, to create sufficient job opportunities for unemployed Saudi youth.
Source: SPA
