The Governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) Hamad bin Saud Al-Sayyari said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's economic activity continues to grow in accordance with 40 indicators of economic activity, emphasizing confidence in local banks and revealed that bank deposits in SAMA increased by more than SR25 billion and that government spending this year soared by 19 percent compared with last year. In a press conference in Riyadh on Saturday to shed light on the economic, financial and monetary current global developments, Al-Sayyari described the financial situation in the Kingdom as generally good. SAMA monitors more than 40 indicators of economic activities which show steady performance and continuous growth as we expect that growth this year will be good and that this trend will proceed for next year, he said. He added that no further change in the exchange rate of the Riyal against the U.S. dollar, confirming the firmness of the situations of local banks. "Not a single Saudi bank suffers liquidity or insolvency problems. Today, the information on the third quarter performance will be presented on SAMA's Web site, with figures illustrating in detail the conditions of the banking system", he said. He ruled out that there is a tendency of merger among Saudi banks as they don't incur problems necessitating such a move. --More
