A key facet of the economic reforms has been the active participation of the private sector in all aspects of the economy particularly in the manufacturing, construction and services sectors. Now turning to the Kingdom’s goals and aspirations for the next decades. We have a clear vision that Saudi Arabia will represent an industrial hub among the region's countries, leveraging off on its strategic location, competitive supply of energy, size of the local market, ease of access to global markets, and the growing partnerships between the public and private sectors. This strategy fulfils our State’s goal of diversifying our economic production base away from Oil. For this purpose, we have encouraged and will continue to encourage the private sector by providing attractive incentives, including the setting up of industrial zones in various parts of the country, equipping them with various infrastructural facilities and by increasing the capital base of specialized credit institutions to provide long-term loans to entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, the Saudi economy is facing a number of challenges the most important of which is the increasing rate of inflation. Although inflation was less than 1 percent on average in the last two decades, it rose to 2.2 percent in 2006 and it continued to increase during the last months, exceeding 4 percent in last August according to the Central Department of Statistics and Information. Our concern is that factors that caused accelerating inflation are still in existence.
ahap Kavcolu: Recent economic and financial developments in Turkey Speech by Mr ahap Kavcolu, Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey, at the 91st Ordinary Meeting of the General Assembly, Ankara, 28 March 2023. *** Esteemed Shareholders, Distinguished Guests, Before I start my speech, I would like to wish Allah Almighty's mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in the devastating earthquakes in February, I extend my condolences to their grieving families, and I wish a speedy recovery to those who are still being treated. I would like to commemorate again Prof. Yusuf Tuna, our esteemed professor and member of the Monetary Policy Committee, who passed away last year. Before moving on to the agenda items to be discussed at the General Assembly, I would like to share with you our assessments regarding the macroeconomic outlook and our monetary policy implementations. In the last part of my speech, I will summarize our activities in 2022. Distinguished Participants, In 2022, while the negative effects of the pandemic had not yet been fully eliminated, as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war that took place in Türkiye's immediate region, supply constraints appeared again and particularly energy prices and global commodity and food prices rose rapidly. In addition to the geopolitical uncertainties that emerged due to the war, the supply-demand imbalances that persisted in the aftermath of the pandemic caused inflation to increase rapidly on a global scale, reaching historically high levels.