
Saudi Arabia’s central bank expects gross domestic product to grow 1.8 percent this year, faster than the 1.2 percent forecast by the International Monetary Fund, the bank said in its annual report, released on Monday.
The non-oil sector is expected to expand 2.5 percent and the oil sector, 1.2 percent, the central bank said.
At a news conference, central bank governor Ahmed Al Kholifey said that the body hopes interbank money rates continue to fall.
He also said Riyadh was not worried about Saudi investments in the United States following the election of Donald Trump as president, and after September’s U.S. Congress vote to let relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks sue Saudi Arabia.
Saudi authorities have made no new decisions about the investments, he said.