Dr. Ahmed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khulaifi, Governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), held here today a press conference to highlight 53rd SAMA Annual Report which was handed over to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. During the press conference, Dr. Al-Khulaifi disclosed that the report included a number of chapters on the global economy, Saudi economy, monetary developments, banking sector, insurance and finance, prices and living costs, capital market, foreign sector, public finance, national accounts, petroleum and mineral wealth, and SAMA performance. He added that the data pointed out that the real gross domestic product (GDP) grew with 1.7% in 2016 in comparison with the same period with a growth of 3.5%. With regard of the GDP growth in accordance with main economic activities in 2016, the data showed a growth in the manufacturing sector with 3.9%, 2.8% in the transport, storage and communications sector and 2.3% in the electricity, gas and water sector. "According to the General Organization for Statistics, private consumption expenditure exceeded SR1 trillion in 2016 (an increase of 5.0% in 2015). The private consumption expenditure per person amounted to SR33410 in 2016, an increase of 4.0% compared to 2015. During 2016, price levels of the general cost of living index for the whole population recorded an increase of 3.5% compared to the previous year," he said. He pointed out that the foreign sector recorded a deficit of SR 103.3 billion in 2016 compared to a deficit of SR 212.7 billion in the previous year, a decrease of 51.4%. He stressed that the financial unified center of the commercial banks showed strength of the banking sector and expansion in providing financial and banking services for customers. He disclosed that SAMA, in 2016, has taken a package of proactive measures to enhance the liquidity status and to ensure that banks continue to play their developmental role in the Kingdom. Referring to the most important indexes in 2017, SAMA governor stated that the broad money supply (N3) increased by 2.4% to reach SR1795 billion by the end of August 2017 compared to a decline of 2.5% in August last year. In August 2017, requirements of the banks for the private sector decreased by 1.0% to SR1422.3 billion compared to an increase of 7.5% in August last year. The total foreign assets of commercial banks in the first eight months of 2017 increased by 4.2% to reach SR235.3 billion. He added that deposits in the banks increased by 2.6% (SR1619 billion) in August 2017 compared to a decrease of 2.8% in August last year. The reserve assets stood at SR1828.7 billion by the end of August 2017 at a reassured level of 70% of the GDP and cover more than 30 months of imports of goods and services. He disclosed that the general index of living cost in August 2017 decreased by 0.1% compared to an increase of 3.3% in the same period the previous year. This decline was due to a low inflation in eight groups of consumption basket. Dr. Al-Khulaifi revealed that preliminary figures indicate a surplus in the current account of balance of the Kingdom's payments during the first half of 2017 reaching about SR29.3 billion compared to a deficit of SR102.7 billion in the same half of the previous year due to an improvement in the surplus of the balance of goods due to the increase in total oil and non-oil exports with 24.7% to reach about SR392.6 billion in the first half of 2017, and the decline of imports (FOB) by 13.5% to reach SR219.7 billion. --More 19:58 LOCAL TIME 16:58 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/1673981
