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  • What analysts expect for Saudi Arabia in 2024?

    International institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank see a leap in the growth of non-oil activities in the Kingdom and the region, as there is still a strong growth momentum in the non-oil sectors. The World Bank expects the non-oil economy to grow, while the IMF set the fair price of oil in the Kingdom’s 2024 budget at $75.1 per barrel.

  • What analysts expect for Saudi Arabia in 2024?

    International institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank see a leap in the growth of non-oil activities in the Kingdom and the region, as there is still a strong growth momentum in the non-oil sectors. The World Bank expects the non-oil economy to grow, while the IMF set the fair price of oil in the Kingdom’s 2024 budget at $75.1 per barrel.

  • Will Saudi Arabia’s recent gold discovery provide a major boost to its economy?

    Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has been looking to diversify away from crude exports by developing sectors including tourism, hospitality and finance.

    Mining is also a key component of the kingdom’s drive to attract foreign direct investment as laid out in the Vision 2030 plan. It aims to more than triple the mining sector’s contribution to the nation’s economic output by the end of the decade.

    “Gold mining has the potential to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and contribute to the kingdom’s gross domestic product,” the WGC said.

  • Will Saudi Arabia’s recent gold discovery provide a major boost to its economy?

    The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) last week announced it found massive gold deposits in the Makkah region.

    The discoveries, the first from an exploration programme launched by the company in 2022, are located along a 100km strip in the south of Ma'aden's Mansourah-Massarah gold mine.

    “The gold discovery could prove significant as the gold content of the ore is high,” Nasser Saidi, a former Lebanese economy minister and vice governor of the country's central bank, told The National.

  • Will Saudi Arabia’s plan work to become the Middle East’s new corporate HQ?

    Saudi Arabia is now aiming to lure 480 companies to open regional HQs by 2030. For context, as of 2021, 196 of the Fortune 500 had a dedicated office for the Middle East and Africa to service the region, with 70% opting to locate in Dubai. Analysts and recruitment experts predict executives are scrutinizing the policy for loopholes.

  • Saudi Arabia’s new regional headquarters regulation takes effect: What will be its impact?

    Saudi Arabia's regulation for foreign companies to set up regional headquarters in the kingdom will support the country's non-oil economy and improve job creation in the Arab world’s largest economy, according to analysts.

    The regulation, which requires firms to set up a local base in the kingdom or risk losing out on government contracts, came into effect on Monday.

    However, companies with foreign operations not exceeding 1 million Saudi riyals ($266,000) can operate in the kingdom without local headquarters.

    “We project robust non-oil growth of 5 per cent in 2024, the highest in the GCC, on a continued broad-based expansion of the non-oil economy,” Carla Slim, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank, told The National.

  • Saudi Arabia and UAE officially join Brics: What will it mean for the bloc?

    Saudi Arabia along with the UAE, Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia joined Brics on January 1, doubling its membership to 10, with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa the original members.

    “Expansion of the Brics multilateral bloc to include Saudi Arabia and UAE augurs extremely well amid ongoing geopolitical and economic challenges confronting the world economy,” Ullas Rao, assistant professor of finance at Edinburgh Business School of Heriot-Watt University in Dubai, said.

    “Both Saudi and the UAE as [among] the richest countries on per capita and home to the biggest sovereign wealth funds, create enormous growth opportunities through investments, trade and commerce.”

  • Can Saudi Arabia keep links with Israel?: Video

    Shortly before the Israel-Hamas war, a peace agreement was in the works between Israel and Saudi Arabia. A trilateral agreement similar to the Abraham Accords was supposed to be brokered by the U.S. and all sides had an interest in flourishing business relations. “The thinking was that greater integration and commercial connectivity would reduce regional tensions,” said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at Chatham House. “I don’t think the current Israeli government can conduct serious negotiations with Saudi Arabia, if a peace with Saudi would require serious concessions by Israel on the Palestinian front,” said Amnon Aran, professor of international politics at City, University of London.

  • Opinion: What does Putin want from the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin visited the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia last week in a bid to expand relations with the two oil-rich states and show that he isn’t as isolated as he has been portrayed by the West. The Russian dictator’s visit to the two Gulf states was only the second time he had ventured outside Russia in the eight months since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest for the alleged war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. Like Russia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are not members of the ICC and Putin therefore found it safe to be in these countries, just as he had when he visited China in October. His venture came against the backdrop of two consequential regional developments.

  • COP28: will there be an agreement to phase out fossil fuels?

    It's the issue at the core of COP28: will this year's U.N. climate talks, held in major oil producer the United Arab Emirates, produce the first global agreement to phase out fossil fuel use? Burning fossil fuels for energy is by far the biggest cause of climate change. It is also the engine of modern life - even with the growth of renewables, fossil fuels produce around 80% of the world's energy. U.N. climate negotiations over the last three decades, however, have yet to address the issue head on.