This came when the King received at Al-Salam palace here today the Minister of Finance Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan; SAMA Governor Dr. Ahmed bin Abdul Karim Al-Khulaifi and the Governor's deputies.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques praised the efforts of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority in serving the national economy and achieving the desired objectives within the Kingdom's Vision 2030, wishing everyone all success.
Then, SAMA Governor delivered a speech on the occasion in which he said that during 2017, the national economy witnessed a number of positive indicators despite the contraction of GDP by about 0.86%, as a result of the decline of the GDP of the oil sector by 3.09%, however, the GDP of the non-oil sector registered a positive growth of 1.05 percent and that the average consumer price index fell by 0.9 percent in 2017 compared with a rise of 2.0 percent in 2016.
He further says that among the positive indicators witnessed by the national economy is the remarkable improvement in the Kingdom's current account of the balance of payments, which recorded a surplus of 57.1 billion riyals in 2017 against a deficit of 89.4 billion riyals in 2016 and concerning the stock market.
The Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) has recently joined a number of global market Indexes such as Morgan Stanley, Standard & Poor's (S & P) and FTSE Index for emerging markets and it is expected that this contributes to enhancing the efficiency of the financial market and increasing market attractiveness for Saudi and foreign investors.
SAMA Governor Dr. Ahmed Al-Khulaifi expressed hope that the local economy will continue to gradually adjust to the reforms adopted during the last two years by achieving good growth rates and contributing to the goals of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.
He pointed out that the economic policies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have recently witnessed many developments aimed as a whole at strengthening the economic structure and moving towards a diversified and sustainable economy.
He also noted that in early 2018, a plan was adopted to implement the Financial Sector Development Program to develop the sector as a diversified and effective financial sector to support the development of the national economy, stimulate savings, finance and investment and increase its efficiency and ability to meet future challenges.
SAMA Governor stressed that enhancing the growth of the local financial sector is one of SAMA's tasks, as it is important in achieving developmental and economic goals emanating from Kingdom's Vision and programs thereof.