Economy

Cash-strapped Saudi lays out policy shake-up

SAUDI ARABIA, its finances hit by low oil prices, announced plans to shrink a record state budget deficit with spending cuts, reforms to energy subsidies and a drive to raise revenues from taxes and privatisation. [...]

Growth accelerator

An area roughly the size of Washington DC is being developed on Saudi Arabia’s west coast. One day King Abdullah Economic City could be home to hundreds of thousands of people employed by a raft of world-class industries [...]

Tonal shifts

The GCC has proved to be surprisingly nimble in adjusting its rhetoric to the new normal of current oil prices. Will this be enough to effect structural change? [...]

The Age of Africa?

Heads of state, cabinet ministers, business leaders, financiers and investors brushed shoulders last month in Dubai to consider the massive opportunity, and challenges, presented by Africa [...]

Unwelcome shock

Riyadh reacted to a recent downgrade by S&P with heavy criticism of the ratings agency, but S&P is far from being alone in its analysis of the Saudi economy [...]