Fitch Ratings Agency today confirmed the strength of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economy and the effectiveness of economic reforms being carried out by the Government of the Kingdom.
Moreover, Fitch affirmed the Kingdom's strong credit rating at ‘A+’ with stable outlook.
The Agency said today: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ratings are strongly supported by the commercial and financial situation, including outstanding foreign currency reserves, low public debt, large government assets and strong commitment to the ambitious economic reforms agenda”.
On the improvement of deficit, Fitch commented that “The deficit level of GDP is expected to fall from 17.2% in 2016 to 8.7% in 2017”.
Fitch highly praised the strength of the Saudi banking system, where it classified the banking sector in the Kingdom pertaining to the banking system as «A», which is a very strong rating with only four countries in the world receiving such higher rating, reflecting the stable profits built on huge stocks of capital being protected by any decline or loss in operations. The shares for regulatory capital from the first tranche of the sector was 17.2% at the end of June 2017.”
Commenting on Fitch's evaluation of the strength of Saudi economy, the Minister of Finance Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan said that “Fitch's assessment is another indicator of the effectiveness of Vision 2030 and its programs and asserts the strength of our economy as well as demonstrates that we are building solid foundations for sustainable growth and prosperity in the long term. We have made much progress as we move towards 2018, looking forward to further achievements and building a better future for the citizens of the Kingdom and the public and private sectors as well”.