The Kingdom achieved a surplus in its budget amounting to 5.2 percent of GDP, and recorded a surplus in the balance of payments for the twelfth year in a row which stood at Rls 250.3 billion. The inflation rate rose slightly from 5.1 percent in 2009 to 5.3 percent in 2010, and stood at 5.2 percent in October 2011. It is noteworthy that the inflation in recent years resulted from a rise in food prices and rents. The pace of growth in the national economy is expected to accelerate during the current year. Several factors contributed to such growth in GDP, including increased government spending to unprecedented levels, a large part of which was devoted to various development projects, and an increase in domestic banks’ finance to both the public and private sectors. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, In continuation of your care to fulfill the needs of the citizens and provide the requirements of a decent life, you issued a number of royal decrees, which will, Allah willing, contribute to enhancement of the citizens’ standard of living. You ordered the establishment of the Ministry of Housing and approved the building of 500,000 housing units in all regions of the Kingdom over the coming five years with allocations of Rls 250 billion. The limit of housing loans extended by the Real Estate Development Fund was increased from Rls 300,000 to Rls 500,000 which will hopefully provide more houses for citizens and constrain the inflationary pressures stemming from the increase in house rents.
Under your wise leadership and continuous guidance, the Supreme Economic Council continued to accomplish a number of development steps aimed at restructuring and reorganizing the economy and streamlining regulations and legislation in order to promote the rise of the level and competitiveness of the economy, achieve the optimum operation of the production factors and provide an attractive environment for domestic and foreign investment. As a result, the investment environment has improved. According to the “Doing Business Report 2012” issued by the World Bank, the Kingdom ranked twelfth among 183 world countries in terms of ease of business performance. The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund noted that the Kingdom was well posed to encounter the global financial crisis. However, the sound supervisory and regulatory frameworks significantly contributed to strengthening the capacity of the financial sector to withstand the crisis. The Board stressed that the sound economic management of oil wealth provided the necessary financial resources to confront the global financial crisis in addition to reducing the public debt from 104 percent of GDP in 1999 to 7 percent in 2011 and strengthening the position of net foreign assets of SAMA. The IMF Executive Board also commended the strength of the Kingdom’s banking system, which is well-capitalized and has high liquidity levels. It has noted that the banking system has showed an ability to encounter a set of regional and global shocks.