Saudi Arabia’s government has begun “injecting large amounts of money into the economy to boost growth at the end of this year after a sharp slowdown due to low oil prices,” Reuters reports citing Saudi Central Bank data.
After raising $17.5 billion last month in its first international bond issue, Saudi Arabia “did not hold that money overseas but quickly brought it into the country,” according to the report. “Instead of expanding because of the bond proceeds, the central bank’s net foreign assets shrank by $10.8 billion from the previous month to $535.9 billion in October – implying the government may have brought home a total of about $28.3 billion last month.”
Meanwhile, total deposits at Saudi commercial banks, which had been trending lower because of government spending cuts, jumped by 27.2 billion riyals ($7.2 billion) in October to 1.610 trillion riyals – their biggest increase in over a year, Reuters reports.
The data follows the government’s recent payments to contractors and companies totaling as much as $10 billion. The delayed payments but a significant hinderance on economic growth, which slowed to 1.4 percent from a year earlier in the second quarter of 2016.
