Saudi Arabia has expressed complete confidence in the non-oil sector to increase contribution in the GDP during the coming months, at a time when Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) is considering new applications of two foreign banks that have shown interest in entering the local market via opening branches for them.
During a dialogue session on Thursday in Riyadh, a number of central bank governors stressed during their participation in Future Investment Initiative the danger of digital currencies.
Governors of central banks in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Jordan highlighted the importance of international efforts to organize digital currencies.
Ahmed al-Kholifey, governor of SAMA, said that since the drop in oil prices mid of 2014 Saudi Arabia has been focusing on economic diversification. He also lauded announcements made at the Future Investment Initiative. Kholifey noted that most of the announced projects are giant ones.
"These projects support and urge the private sector and its growth sources. Given the statistics of the first half of current year, there is a drop in growth attributed to the oil sector and not others," he added.
The non-oil sector, especially the private sector, represent a 38 percent of GDP, stated Kholifey. “Economic reforms of privatization and structural change will contribute positively in increasing this percentage,” he assured.
Kholifey saw that NEOM or other launched projects need a strong banking sector and insurance sector.
Kuwait Central Bank Governor Mohammad al-Hashel declared that the Kuwaiti economy faced unbalance in structure but worked on fixing it.
Bahrain Central Bank Governor Rasheed al-Maraj said that work on the Gulf monetary federation has been suspended recently. Jordan’s Central Bank Governor Zaid Fariz stated that the growth of Jordanian economy was slow during the past years.
