Riyadh-based Jadwa Investment’s latest monthly chartbook overviewing the Saudi economy contains mostly negative economic data on consumer spending, activity, government accounts, and inflation.
Economic data for the month of December 2015 indicates a slowdown in activity, and data on consumer spending continued to point to a softening trend, while PMI fell to a record low, Jadwa noted. The net monthly change to government accounts was negative. SAMA foreign exchange reserves posted the second largest monthly decline in 2015.
Inflation averaged 2.2 percent in 2015, but Jadwa forecasted a rise to 3.9 percent in 2016.
On the Saudi stock market, regional and global pressures continued to mount on listings. “Fears over weaker global economic growth, rising cost of domestic energy and weaker year-on-year quarterly results combined to push the TASI down in January and resulted in TASI’s price-to-earnings dropping further below the five year average,” Jadwa found.
Click the respective links to view the full briefing in English (PDF) and Arabic (PDF).
