There has been no big outflow of money from Saudi Arabia as a result of the sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that was announced two weeks ago, according to central bank governor Ahmed Al-Kholifey.
In comments made to CNN and reported in Reuters, Al-Kholifey said Saudi Arabia is seeing “some increase, but it’s not that much,” and added that the increase was in the form of corporate transfers of money, and that large amounts of money were not being transferred out of the country by individuals.
The comments come as separate reports say that Saudi Arabia is releasing some of those detained on corruption accusations in exchange for those individuals handing over assets and cash in return.
“One businessman had tens of millions of Saudi riyals withdrawn from his account after he signed. In another case, a former senior official consented to hand over ownership of four billion riyals worth of shares,” a source told Reuters.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department is “closely watching the situation in Saudi Arabia,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Friday.
Asked about the agreements to hand over wealth for detainees’ freedom, Mnuchin told CNBC “I think that the Crown Prince (Mohammed bin Salman) is doing a great job at transforming the country,” adding that the United States was “obviously monitoring the situation.”
