SAMA: Banks to Postpone Payment of Installments for Saudi Workers

SAMA: Banks to Postpone Payment of Installments for Saudi Workers
TT

SAMA: Banks to Postpone Payment of Installments for Saudi Workers

SAMA: Banks to Postpone Payment of Installments for Saudi Workers

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) has directed Saudi local banks to postpone three months installments of all financing products for Saudi workers registered in the support of unemployment insurance (SANED) without any additional costs or fees.

The decision is effective as of April.

SAMA said that postponing the installments does not require submitting request forms from clients, however it said banks should consider and accept the requests of clients who are unwilling to postpone installments.

This comes upon the royal order issued by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to compensate Saudis working in private sector firms that have been impacted by the current consequences of COVID-19 outbreak.



Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
TT

Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Türkiye’s central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5% on Thursday, carrying out its first rate cut in nearly two years as it tries to control soaring inflation.
Citing slowing inflation, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was reducing its one-week repo rate to 47.5% from the current 50%.
The committee said in a statement that the overall inflation trend was “flat” in November and that indicators suggest it is likely to decline in December, The Associated Press reported.

Demand within the country was slowing, helping to reduce inflation, it said.
Inflation in Türkiye surged in recent years due to declining foreign reserves and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unconventional economic policy of lowering rates as a way to tame inflation — which he later abandoned.
Inflation stood at 47% in November, after having peaked at 85% in late 2022, although independent economists say the real rate is much higher than the official figures.

Most economists argue that higher interest rates help control inflation, but the Turkish leader had fired central bank governors for failing to fall in line with his previous rate-cutting policies.

Following a return to more conventional policies under a new economic team, the central bank raised interest rates from 8.5% to 50% between May 2023 and March 2024. The bank had kept rates steady at 50% until Thursday's rate cut.
The high inflation has left many households struggling to afford basic goods, such as food and housing.