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Riyadh Season Witnesses over $41Mn in Financial Operations

Fireworks light up the Saudi capital as part of the Riyadh Season. (SPA)
Fireworks light up the Saudi capital as part of the Riyadh Season. (SPA)
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Riyadh Season Witnesses over $41Mn in Financial Operations

Fireworks light up the Saudi capital as part of the Riyadh Season. (SPA)
Fireworks light up the Saudi capital as part of the Riyadh Season. (SPA)

The Riyadh Season helped revive financial operations in the Saudi capital with more than 333,000 transactions made through more than 200,000 bank cards at the event, revealed official statistics from the Saudi Payments Network (Mada).

These transactions have amounted to more than SAR156 million (approximately $41.5 million), five percent of which were made by foreign visitors despite their preference to pay in cash.

The Riyadh Season has exceeded economic expectations and helped attract a large number of tourists as demonstrated in the unprecedented high hotel occupancy. Some 100,000 tourists and 5.6 million visitors had attended the festival, said Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority(GEA) Turki Al Sheikh.

Riyadh Season was organized by 280 Saudi companies. It provided 24,000 seasonal jobs and more than 22,000 part-time jobs, he added.

“The Riyadh Season is a national project that has social and economic dimensions,” remarked Economic Advisor Dr. Amer al-Husseini.

He stressed that it is one of the Kingdom’s soft power tools that shows the world the extent of investment opportunities.

Its partnership with international companies promotes the localization of the entertainment and tourism industry in the Kingdom, he noted.

“This festival is one of the great opportunities that can be invested to bolster the national economy and develop financial resources from the productive sectors.”

Husseini added that it also contributes to the creation of permanent and temporary job opportunities, which have a significant role in refining youth skills and enhancing their functional capabilities.

Moreover, he stressed that Saudi Arabia’s emergence on the map of global events will play a role in boosting its relations with other countries.

This openness will allow tourists to learn about the indigenous Saudi national culture and promote partnerships among peoples, he noted.

Riyadh Season ends on December 15.

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Federal Reserve Cuts Key Interest Rate by a Quarter-point

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, US, November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, US, November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
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Federal Reserve Cuts Key Interest Rate by a Quarter-point

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, US, November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell attends a press conference following a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on interest rate policy in Washington, US, November 7, 2024. REUTERS/Annabelle Gordon

The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Thursday by a quarter-point in response to the steady decline in the once-high inflation that had angered Americans and helped drive Donald Trump’s presidential election victory this week.
The rate cut follows a larger half-point reduction in September, and it reflects the Fed’s renewed focus on supporting the job market as well as fighting inflation, which now barely exceeds the central bank’s 2% target, The Associated Press reported.
Asked at a news conference how Trump's election might affect the Fed's policymaking, Chair Jerome Powell said that "in the near term, the election will have no effects on our (interest rate) decisions.”
But Trump’s election, beyond its economic consequences, has raised the specter of meddling by the White House in the Fed’s policy decisions. Trump has argued that as president, he should have a voice in the central bank’s interest rate decisions. The Fed has long guarded its role as an independent agency able to make difficult decisions about borrowing rates, free from political interference. Yet in his previous term in the White House, Trump publicly attacked Powell after the Fed raised rates to fight inflation, and he may do so again.
Asked whether he would resign if Trump asked him to, Powell, who will have a year left in his second four-year term as Fed chair when Trump takes office, replied simply, “No.”
And Powell said that in his view, Trump could not fire or demote him: It would “not be permitted under the law,” he said.
Thursday’s Fed rate cut reduced its benchmark rate to about 4.6%, down from a four-decade high of 5.3%. The Fed had kept its rate that high for more than a year to fight the worst inflation streak in four decades. Annual inflation has since fallen from a 9.1% peak in mid-2022 to a 3 1/2-year low of 2.4% in September.
When its latest policy meeting ended Thursday, the Fed issued a statement noting that the "unemployment rate has moved up but remains low,” and while inflation has fallen closer to the 2% target level, it “remains somewhat elevated.”
After their rate cut in September — their first such move in more than four years — the policymakers had projected that they would make further quarter-point cuts in November and December and four more next year. But with the economy now mostly solid and Wall Street anticipating faster growth, larger budget deficits and higher inflation under a Trump presidency, further rate cuts may have become less likely. Rate cuts by the Fed typically lead over time to lower borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.
Powell declined to be pinned down Thursday on whether the Fed would proceed with an additional quarter-point rate cut in December or the four rate cuts its policymakers penciled in for 2025.