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Saudi Arabia

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Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam and home to Islam's two holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. The king's official title is the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. The modern Saudi state was founded in 1932 by ABD AL-AZIZ bin Abd al-Rahman Al SAUD (Ibn Saud) after a 30-year campaign to unify most of the Arabian Peninsula. A male descendent of Ibn Saud, his son ABDALLAH bin Abd al-Aziz, rules the country today as required by the country's 1992 Basic Law. Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, Saudi Arabia accepted the Kuwaiti royal family and 400,000 refugees while allowing Western and Arab troops to deploy on its soil for the liberation of Kuwait the following year. The continuing presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil after the liberation of Kuwait became a source of tension between the royal family and the public until all operational US troops left the country in 2003. Major terrorist attacks in May and November 2003 spurred a strong on-going campaign against domestic terrorism and extremism. King ABDALLAH has continued the cautious reform program begun when he was crown prince. To promote increased political participation, the government held elections nationwide from February through April 2005 for half the members of 179 municipal councils. In December 2005, King ABDALLAH completed the process by appointing the remaining members of the advisory municipal councils. The king instituted an Inter-Faith Dialogue initiative in 2008 to encourage religious tolerance on a global level; in February 2009, he reshuffled the cabinet, which led to more moderates holding ministerial and judicial positions, and appointed the first female to the cabinet. The country remains a leading producer of oil and natural gas and holds more than 20% of the world's proven oil reserves. The government continues to pursue economic reform and diversification, particularly since Saudi Arabia's accession to the WTO in December 2005, and promotes foreign investment in the kingdom. A burgeoning population, aquifer depletion, and an economy largely dependent on petroleum output and prices are all ongoing governmental concerns.[1]

Economical characteristics

  • Currency: Saudi Riyal (ISO code: SAR)
  • Central bank discount rate: 2.5% (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Commercial banks lending rate: NA%[1]
  • Stock of money (M1): $113.6 billion (31 December 2008)[1]
  • Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $136.4 billion (31 December 2008)[1]


Statistics

Statistic / Year 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
GDP (million USD)[2] 160 957 188 442 183 012 188 551 214 573 250 339 315 580 356 630 384 076 468 800
Govt. debt (% of GDP)[3]
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)[4]
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)[5]
Debt to revenue (years)

References

Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named CIA_SA
  2. ↑ World Bank. "Saudi Arabia: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  3. ↑ World Bank. "Saudi Arabia: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  4. ↑ World Bank. "Saudi Arabia: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.
  5. ↑ World Bank. "Saudi Arabia: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-09-30.

Links

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