Saudi Arabia is the fifth largest global economy in the International Investment Position (IIP), which determines the position of creditor and debtor countries globally, with the Kingdom's net international investment position reaching $703.3 billion (2.64 trillion riyals) at the end of 2015, according to the latest IMF data obtained by Amlak.
Multiple Investments
The international investment position is total external assets minus total external liabilities. Creditor countries are those whose external assets exceed their external liabilities, i.e. where the net international investment position is positive, and vice versa for debtor countries. The Japanese economy was the highest value in the net international investment position with about 2.82 trillion dollars at the end of 2015, followed by the German economy with about 1.61 trillion dollars, the Chinese economy with about 1.60 trillion dollars, Hong Kong with about 979 billion dollars, Saudi Arabia with about 703.3 billion dollars, Norway with 703.2 billion dollars, Switzerland with 614 billion dollars, Singapore with 597 billion dollars, the Netherlands with 471 billion dollars, and Belgium with 273 billion dollars.
Top Ten Countries
The top ten creditors with the highest negative net international investment position were the United States with -7.28 trillion dollars, Spain with -1.05 trillion dollars, Australia with -699 billion dollars, Ireland with -579.5 billion dollars, Brazil with -479 billion dollars, Mexico with -440 billion dollars, Italy with -422 billion dollars, the United Kingdom with -399 billion dollars, France with -390 billion dollars, and India with -368 billion dollars.<The net international investment position is the accumulation of the deficit or surplus realized by countries in their balance of payments. The difference between the balance of payments and the net international investment position is that the balance of payments measures the transactions between the domestic and foreign economy during a specific period only, and whether the country achieved a surplus or deficit in its foreign transactions during the period, which is usually annual or quarterly. The net international investment position is the cumulative result of the balance of payments surplus or deficit.
Saudi Arabia's net investment position
<It is worth noting that the Saudi economy ranked fourth globally in terms of international net investment position at the end of 2011, reaching about 2.53 trillion riyals ($674 billion) at that time. Japan ranked first with 3,255 billion dollars, Germany second with 1,074 billion dollars, and China third with 704 billion dollars. The Saudi economy was ranked sixth globally in 2008 in terms of international investment status with 464 billion dollars.
The impact of oil prices
The rise in oil prices during the period from 2011 to mid-2014 contributed to improving the performance of the Saudi economy towards the outside world, as the Kingdom ranked third in the world in the current account surplus in 2013 after the German and Chinese economies, and the Kingdom's current account surplus at that time amounted to 486.8 billion riyals ($129.8 billion). Saudi Arabia was ranked 142nd globally in 1983, and fell to 166th in 1993 as a result of the worsening current account surplus deficit, which amounted to 17.2 billion dollars at that time, then the performance of the Saudi economy with the outside world improved during the recent years preceding the decline in oil prices.
