Saudi Arabia Encourages Business Owners to Visit India, Expand Investments

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with officials from Japan on the sidelines of the ministerial digital economy working group of the G20. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with officials from Japan on the sidelines of the ministerial digital economy working group of the G20. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia Encourages Business Owners to Visit India, Expand Investments

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with officials from Japan on the sidelines of the ministerial digital economy working group of the G20. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha meets with officials from Japan on the sidelines of the ministerial digital economy working group of the G20. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia is mobilizing a group of business owners for an upcoming visit to India, accompanied by a high-level government delegation, to participate in the G20 summit next month.

The volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached $42.8 billion over the past year. Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trading partner after the United States, China and the UAE, and a major source of energy. New Delhi imports about 18.4 percent of its crude oil needs and 22 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas from Riyadh.

According to information available to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Saudi government has encouraged private sector entities to attend the Saudi-Indian Investment Forum, which is scheduled to be held on Sept. 11.

The forum will review investment partnerships between the two countries and will witness bilateral meetings and the signing of a number of economic agreements.

Saudi ministers are currently participating in the ministerial meetings of the G20 in India, ahead of the presidential summit that will be held next month, with the participation of all leaders and presidents of the group.

Finance Minister Mohammad Al-Jadaan, accompanied by Minister of Health Fahad Al-Jalajel, recently participated in a joint meeting of finance and health ministers of the G20 countries.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Abdullah Alswaha headed a delegation representing the digital economy, innovation and space system in the Kingdom to participate in the meeting of the G20 Ministerial Working Group on the Digital Economy.

CEO of SABIC Abdulrahman bin Saleh Al-Fageeh will lead the Kingdom’s business delegation to the upcoming G20 Business 20 summit, which will be held in New Delhi, on Aug. 25-27.

Al-Fageeh stated that the event is an important opportunity for the business community in the Kingdom, underlining the need to address critical global challenges shaping the future of business and economies.

He also stressed the importance of communicating with business leaders from all over the world in order to highlight the business environment in the Kingdom as a promising investment destination.



Türkiye's Erdogan Expects More Interest Rate Cuts in 2025

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
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Türkiye's Erdogan Expects More Interest Rate Cuts in 2025

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 12, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP)

Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that there would be more interest rate cuts in 2025 after the central bank cut its key rate by 250 basis points to 47.5% this week.

The Turkish central bank trimmed the one-week repo rate after an 18-month tightening effort that reversed years of unorthodox economic policies and easy money championed by Erdogan, who has since changed tack to back the program.

"Priority in our economy program is to lower the inflation... We will hopefully reduce inflation to the required level by using other tools at our disposal in addition to the monetary policy," Erdogan told members of his AK Party (AKP) in northwestern city of Bursa.

"We will definitely start lowering the interest rates. 2025 will be the landmark year for this," he said.

"Interest rates will decrease so that inflation will decrease. We will take this step. This is now indispensable for us."

Erdogan, who once described interest rates as his "biggest enemy," said last month that inflation would fall alongside the interest rate.

The central bank earlier announced that it had reduced the number of scheduled policy meetings next year to eight from 12 in 2024.

According to a Reuters poll's median, the central bank is expected to ease rates to about 28.5% by the end of 2025, with forecasts ranging between 25% and 33%.