Economy

Benefitting greatly from rising oil prices and production over the last decade, Saudi Arabia has used its sizeable revenues to build up strong external buffers and drive GDP growth through extensive spending programmes. The decline in oil prices that began in mid-2014, however, has significantly lowered export revenues and brought the era of fiscal surpluses to a close. The resulting altered economic landscape and growing demographic pressures have presented the recently reorganised government with a significant test, and its response has been to set in motion a series of the most wide-ranging reforms in the nation’s history. Moving forward the country’s Vision 2030 calls for a major shift in the way the Kingdom’s economy operates, moving from a system of state-led growth and centralised planning to a more open market framework where the private sector takes up a leading role in economic expansion.

This chapter contains interviews with Prince Turki bin Saud bin Mohammed Al Saud, President, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology; Khaled Al Araj, Minister of Civil Service; and Abdulkarim Al Nujaidi, Director-General, Human Resource Development Fund.