Othman also touched on the most prominent achievements of late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, among them were doubling the GDP from SR 1.23 trillion in 2005 to about SR 2.82 trillion in 2014 with a growth rate of 129%, which is higher growth rate among the Group of Twenty including the strongest global economies. He pointed to a decline in the general government debt from SR 460 billion in 2005 to SR 44 billion at the end of 2014 and to an increase in the total direct foreign investments' assets in the Kingdom, within just nine years, to be quintupled from SR 125 billion in 2005 to SR 780 billion in 2014. Furthermore, SAGIA Governor pointed to a rise in the Kingdom's total reserve assets to be quadrupled, from SR 581 billion in 2005 to about SR 2.75 trillion at the end of 2014, up by 372%, making the Kingdom the third richest country in terms of reserve assets volume after China and Japan, according to the latest data released by the International Monetary Fund, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's reserves represent about 56% of the total reserves of the combined countries of euro zone. Al-Othman explained that the data issued by Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) indicated that the current account of the balance of payments surplus rose from SR 337 billion in 2005 to about SR 440 billion in 2014, up by 30%, making the Kingdom, according to the International Monetary Fund, the third largest global economy in terms of the current account surplus after China and Germany. --More 12:14 LOCAL TIME 09:14 GMT تغريد
