Saudi Arabia Challenges the IMF's Economic Growth Forecasts for 2020: Finance Minister

Saudi Arabia's Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, challenged the extent of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)'s forecasted-contraction for the country’s economy for 2020, asserting that the negative growth was likely to remain much smaller.

In its June 2020 forecast, the IMF downgraded its growth estimate for Saudi Arabia’s economy, to a contraction of 6.8% (from a decline of 2.3% estimated previously), citing the fall in oil prices and the impacts of COVID-19 as key reasons.

Al-Jadaan, however, dismissed this outlook, remaining cautiously optimistic of Saudi Arabia’s growth prospects, adding that the country would likely see "very healthy economic growt...