E-Media:
Riyadh - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has concluded the Article IV consultation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and IMF Executive Board report 2009.
The report , according to Saudi Press Agency, pointed out that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia confronts the current global crisis with stronger fundamentals compared with previous downturns. In recent years, the authorities consolidated their macroeconomic position, strengthened the financial sector, and implemented structural reforms to boost private-sector led growth.
The consolidation of Saudi Arabia’s economic position has not gone unnoticed: Saudi Arabia was ranked first among Arab countries for four consecutive years and 16th globally by the latest World Bank’s Doing Business Report.
The report added that although overall real GDP is projected to contract slightly in 2009 owing to lower oil demand, the non-oil sector expansion continues to be robust and inflation is declining. The IMF Executive Board Directors noted that Saudi Arabia confronts the current global crisis from a position of strength, reflecting a track record of prudent macroeconomic policies and structural reforms that have enhanced the economy’s resilience.
The IMF Executive Board Directors considered that the most important short-term challenges are to preserve financial sector stability and mitigate the domestic impact of the global recession.
They commended the authorities for their decisive fiscal response to mitigate the impact of the global recession on economic activity. The fiscal stimulus package, which was the largest relative to GDP among G-20 countries, appropriately focused on capital spending and would contribute both to diversified domestic growth and the global recovery.
The IMF has issued a newsletter  in Arabic and English about the consultations with Saudi Arabia which published on the websites of( IMF) www.imf.org and Saudi Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.sa.