TAG: Financial Services
Saudi Arabia's response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been aided by solid fundamentals, proactive containment and mitigation policies, and an increasingly vibrant digital economy. While exploring the holistic response of policymakers to the challenges, this latest report also focuses on how the national payment infrastructure was able to support a rapid shift towards digital payments, and looks at whether the transition towards a cashless society has been accelerated.
Saudi Arabia’s investment in health care infrastructure in recent years has enabled the kingdom to navigate the early health care challenges associated with Covid-19 while its ample financial buffers and strong sovereign credit rating have allowed it to plug temporary revenue shortfalls resulting from the economic slowdown and collapse in global energy demand.
As one of the few countries which are forecast to grow in 2020 and the only forecast to grow in the MENA region this year, Egypt’s economy has remained remarkably resilient. This is closely linked to the well capitalised financial services sector which has ensured credit has flowed to companies and individuals during the height of the pandemic.