The Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), Dr. Ahmed bin Abdul Karim Al-Khulaifi, held a press conference at the SAMA headquarters in Riyadh to highlight the 55th annual report of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), which reviews the economic and financial developments in the Kingdom during 2018. During the conference, Dr. Al-Khulaifi reviewed the most prominent developments of the Saudi economy for the current year 2019, noting that according to the data of the General Authority for Statistics for the first quarter of 2019, the private sector achieved a growth rate of 2.3% due to the growth of all economic activities except the manufacturing industries, which decreased slightly. Al-Khulaifi said that transport, storage, information and communications activity recorded the highest growth rate of 4.9 percent, and construction activity rose by 1.3 percent after the contraction witnessed during the last three years. Dr. Al-Khulaifi said, "Consumer and investment spending rates are in good and reassuring growth. The final consumer spending rate increased by 4.75 percent during the first quarter of 2019. Investment spending 'gross fixed capital formation' increased by 3.65 percent.'' In terms of POS sales, Al-Khulaifi reported a significant increase of 18.7 percent in July 2019. The private sector imports financed by commercial banks and represented by new open letter of credit during the first seven months of 2019 increased by 13.2 percent to reach 68 billion riyals compared to 60 billion riyals in the same period last year.
