Kingdom's recovery program largest in G-20: Al-Assaf

Kingdom's recovery program largest in G-20: Al-Assaf P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab News

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has embarked on a massive economic recovery program worth $400 billion, which the International Monetary Fund considers as the largest in G-20 countries, Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf said on Thursday. "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has adopted an investment and development program for the government and monetary sectors, valued at $400 billion, for five years," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister as saying. "The IMF conducted a study on policies adopted by G-20 member countries, which showed that the Kingdom's investment program for infrastructure and other projects is the largest in the group," Al-Assaf told reporters after the G-20 summit in London. He said Saudi Arabia has allocated 10 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to finance the program in three years. Spain is the only country having an economic program closer to the Kingdom's figure. The Saudi minister gave an optimistic picture of the Kingdom's economy, saying the economic condition would improve further in 2010, when world economy, according to IMF, would grow by two percent. He denied press reports that Saudi Arabia contributed $90 billion to beef up IMF. "These reports are baseless," he said. "There has been discussion recently on getting support of $250 billion for IMF. Japan and some other countries have participated in it. But Saudi Arabia is still studying options that serve its interests to support the fund." Al-Assaf referred to the efforts of countries to get funds for financing foreign trade. "In this regard Saudi Arabia makes use of a number of channels, most importantly the Saudi Fund for Development, for which it has allocated SR15 billion." http://samotalis.blogspot.com/