<His Excellency Minister of Finance Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan congratulated the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Public Investment Fund, on the success of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) 2018. The event was held in Riyadh from October 23-25, which reflected the international interest in the initiative and demonstrated the strength and durability of the Kingdom's economy regionally and globally.

Non-oil revenues grew by (48%)

The final day was marked by a panel discussion titled “Fiscal Balance Programs”, in which His Excellency Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Jadaan, Minister of Finance, and H.E. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance of the Kingdom of Bahrain, participated.

<During the session, Al-Jadaan explained that non-oil revenues achieved a growth of (48%) by the end of the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Government spending also achieved a growth of (25%) by the end of the third quarter compared to the same period last year, which effectively contributed to supporting economic growth.

Al-Jadaan emphasized the importance of non-oil revenues. Al-Jadaan emphasized the importance of the fiscal legal framework in supporting private sector investments by giving companies a greater share of future government spending plans and increasing their confidence in the government's financial systems.

Jadaan stressed the importance of the fiscal legal framework in supporting private sector investments.

60 billion dollars worth 25 agreements

<The initiative witnessed the signing of 25 agreements and memorandums of understanding with a total value of more than $60 billion under the “National Industry and Logistics Development Program” focusing on four vital sectors (industry, mining, energy, and logistics), In a press statement, the Minister of Finance emphasized the success of the Future Investment Initiative, ”The signing of agreements and memorandums of understanding confirms confidence in the Saudi economy because of the promising investment opportunities it holds, and these agreements will contribute to transforming the Kingdom into a leading industrial power and a global logistics platform to achieve the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

Great efforts in developing the economy

<Al-Jadaan added: “The position reached by the Saudi economy confirms the positive results of the reform measures taken by the Kingdom's government, and the tremendous efforts made to bring the Saudi economy to a comfortable position compared to other global economies, which was emphasized by His Highness the Crown Prince - may God protect him - during his speech on Wednesday at the Future Investment Initiative that the Kingdom has taken very large steps in developing the Saudi economy and growing it during the past three years.”

Jadaan added.

Gradual reduction of deficit rates

His Excellency stressed that these steps have contributed to the improvement of public finance management and fiscal discipline, and the gradual reduction of deficit rates as a result of the successful implementation of many initiatives to develop non-oil revenues and increase the efficiency of spending, and the trend towards growth in capital assets, and there is no doubt that the full commitment to the established plans has contributed to this achievement.“

The Minister of Finance pointed out that the announced figures showed the size of growth in the Kingdom's real GDP, which was reflected in local and international reports, and confirmed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in October, where the Fund revised its expectations of high growth rates of the Kingdom's economy, in addition to Moody's recent credit rating, which indicated confidence in the Saudi economy at A1 with a stable outlook, while raising expectations for the size of Saudi GDP growth for 2018 and 2019.