Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia is reportedly looking for loans worth $10 billion from international lenders in its most significant foreign borrowing in a decade, The Independent said on its website.
The Saudi Arabian government is said to have sent an invitation to banks to discuss a US dollar loan, it added.
S&P said earlier this month Saudi Arabia borrowed $26 billion in 2015. In Saudi Arabia, the government’s 14 per cent of GDP fiscal deficit in 2015 brought about a significant policy change. The government was close to paying down all of its debt in 2015. From July of that year, however, the government began a programme of debt issuance, with 20 billion Saudi riyal ($5.3 billion; Dh19.57 billion) issued each month between August and December.
S&P analysts expect Saudi Arabia’s debt stock to rise to 9 per cent of GDP in 2016 and to about 30 per cent by 2019.
“We expect Saudi Arabia to account for nearly 70 per cent of the GCC countries’ total borrowing in 2016 and to become the second-largest issuer of commercial debt in the Mena region,” S&P said.
