Saudi prince says economic reforms working, promises huge investments

The prince overseeing Saudi Arabia’s economy said his radical reforms were succeeding in protecting the kingdom against low oil prices, and he promised massive investments in coming years to help diversify the economy beyond oil.

“Although our prices dipped to as low as $27 for more than one year…the government managed to shield economic indicators from the negative impact,” Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a rare nationally televised interview on Tuesday.

“Gross domestic product is still growing – not at global rates, true, but it is not going into deflation.”

He said more than half of the tens of billions of dollars that Riyadh expects to raise by selling shares in national oil giant Saudi Aramco would be reinvested domestically by the kingdom’s top sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), to create jobs and earn revenue.

In the three years after the share sale, the PIF will spend over 500 billion riyals ($133 billion), with between 50 and 70 percent going to develop promising non-oil sectors such as mining and logistics within Saudi Arabia, he added. Read more…