Saudi Arabia

On February 26, 2017 Saudi Arabia became the first country in the Gulf region to launch a parallel equity market – Nomu, named after the Arabic word for “growth”. The new exchange is expected to attract small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and support their growth. It could be a game-changer both for budding regional businesses and...

In the third quarter of 2017, 13.76m people were registered as working in the Kingdom, according to the General Authority for Statistics, with Saudi citizens making up just over 3m of the total. Foreign nationals have accounted for the bulk of the workforce for decades, and can be found in all strata of the economy, from CEOs and white-collar...

Unveiled in October 2017, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) Programme 2018-20 is a development roadmap that aims to position the PIF as one of the world’s top sovereign wealth funds. Key objectives of the plan are to increase assets under management from $230bn to $400bn by 2020 and $2trn by 2030, and achieve average investment returns of 4-5%...

For many decades Saudi Arabia has built its financial reserves with the proceeds of oil exports, while its increasingly affluent consumers have established the country as a significant importer of goods and services. However, lower oil prices have eroded the Kingdom’s healthy trade surplus, reminding countries around the world of the...

Reaching a dispersed population across 2.15m sq km has always been a key challenge for Saudi Arabia’s commercial banks. While coastal business centres and the capital are well served by banking infrastructure, the connection between the public and the industry is patchier in other parts of the country. According to the World Bank’s most recent...

The foundations for a major overhaul of the economy were laid during 2017, with the Saudi government taking steps to privatise key state assets and stimulate investment, as part of plans to diversify the economy away from a reliance on hydrocarbons revenues.