Saudi Minister of Economy and Planning Mohammed al-Tuwaijri expected the Saudi economic growth to reach 2.6 percent this year, Trend reports referring to Al Arabiya.
On the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Saudi minister told Al Arabiya on Thursday that the non-oil sector will grow by 2.4 percent in 2019.
The minister added: “We care to increase the local content and provide jobs when looking into the economic growth and this is one of the main objectives of Vision 2030, from the privatization program to the industry program that will be launched on Monday, including other programs,” al-Tuwaijri said.
He added: “We launched four privatization projects in 2019, 100 percent funded by the private sector which is the beginning of the first privatization of the rest of the sectors.”
As for the funding needs of the Kingdom for 2019, al-Tuwaijri pointed out that more than 50% of the buyers of the last international bonds were from Europe and America.
He said: “What is important to us is to diversify the investor base in these bonds. The bond financing plan serves the Saudi budget primarily, but also aims to look at the ratio to the GDP.”
When asked about the Kingdom’s plans to raise $32 billion in domestic and international bonds in 2019, he said: “The market will determine the timing of these proposals, so that the balance of local and international bonds will serve the price and the credit rating.”