Saudi Arabia

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has been plunged into a multimillion-pound bankruptcy row with a Greek shipping tycoon, The Telegraph reported. Ms Staveley, who helped Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund acquire the Premier League club in 2021, has asked the High Court to prevent shipping magnate Victor Restis from forcing her into bankruptcy, new filings reveal. Mr Restis claims Ms Staveley has failed to repay a loan of more than £35m that dates back to over a decade.

Days after welcoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken as part of efforts to reset relations with the US, Saudi Arabia turned its attention to boosting ties with one of Washington’s main competitors: China, Bloomberg News reported. For the past two days, the Saudi capital has played host to the largest ever Chinese-Arab business gathering. Under the chandeliers and vaulted ceilings of Riyadh’s grandest conference hall, Saudi officials spoke of integrating China into the Arab region and Chinese executives said they stood ready to “de-Americanize” the world’s top oil exporter.

Saudi Arabia's central bank on Wednesday increased its repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.75% and its reverse repo rate also by 25bps to 5.25%, it said in a statement. Saudi Arabia, whose currency is pegged to the U.S. dollar, followed the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point. Read more.

The Saudi Central Bank said on Wednesday it increased its key interest rates by 25 basis points, following the U.S. Federal Reserve's move as the Saudi riyal is pegged to the dollar, Reuters reported. The Saudi Central Bank, also known as SAMA, lifted its repo and reverse repo rates by 25 bps each to 5.25% and 4.75%, respectively, it said in a statement. Read more.

Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that it was considering providing up to $11 billion to Pakistan, a potential lifeline to a country facing default, the Wall Street Journal reported. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar in recent months have said they might also offer help to Pakistan, with potential loans and investments from Gulf nations now totaling at least $22 billion after the latest announcement from Riyadh. Gulf countries have said they could extend a similar level of support to Egypt, which is also struggling economically.

Saudi Arabia’s central bank has stepped up the use of a mechanism to pump money into the financial system as it looks to tackle a liquidity crunch that has helped push borrowing costs for lenders to the highest in decades, Bloomberg News reported. The latest intervention is relying on open market operations, the people said, transactions that allow the central bank to provide or drain short-term liquidity in exchange for securities from lenders. Unusually for a period of high oil prices, Saudi banks are facing a shortage of liquidity.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince on Sunday launched an initiative to attract investments in supply chains to and from the kingdom, with an aim of raising an initial 40 billion riyals ($10.64 billion), Reuters reported. The initiative by Prince Mohammed bin Salman will include allocating about 10 billion riyals in incentives for supply chain investors, state news agency SPA reported, without elaborating.

Saudi Arabia is selling bonds and Islamic securities, while offering to buy back as much as $15.5 billion of debt, Bloomberg News reported. The world’s biggest oil exporter plans to sell sukuk maturing in six years and bonds due in 10, both denominated in dollars. At the same time, Saudi Arabia asked holders of its bonds due in 2023, 2025 and 2026 to tender their notes for purchase by the kingdom for cash. It will announce the maximum acceptance amount after the pricing of the new securities.

Saudi Arabia announced a spending boost that will sharply narrow next year’s budget surplus as it looks to tackle the impact of inflation and use its oil windfall to accelerate the development of economic diversification projects, Bloomberg News reported. The kingdom’s Finance Ministry said in a preliminary budget statement on Friday that it expects a surplus of 9 billion riyals ($2.4 billion) next year, or 0.2% of gross domestic product -- smaller than an earlier estimate of 27 billion riyals.