Saudi Arabia will mark the seventh anniversary of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s accession to the Saudi throne on May 17 with a variety of programs highlighting the remarkable progress achieved by the Kingdom.

Year-on-year inflation dipped to 5.3 percent in April from 5.4 percent in March. Lower food price inflation was the main reason for the decline. Rental inflation picked up.

The industrial sector is the real excitement for us, which is growing at a rate of 15 per­cent, which is not a joke. The other one is service sector, like the financial services or the restaurant and hotels or other services in the economy.

U.S. regulators’ $14 million settlement with high-frequency trading firm Optiver over oil price manipulation in 2007 is a “milestone” victory in their toughening stance on market malfeasance which is being closely watched by traders.

The Gulf region continued to create jobs despite the impact of Arab Spring in 2011 with the regional powerhouse Saudi Arabia topping the list followed by Qatar and Oman, according to a new survey.

In an op-ed in the Financial Times, Ali Al Naimi writes, “High international oil prices are bad news. Bad for Europe, bad for the US, bad for emerging economies and bad for the world’s poorest nations."

Regulators of the Saudi stock exchange, Tadawul, the largest in the Arab world, are fine-tuning the draft of a law on Qualified Foreign Investors in the hope of attracting institutional fund managers to buy shares directly in the $400 billion market.

Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange is expected to quickly rank among the world’s 10 most active markets if it opens up to international investors.