SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi finance minister hopes housing scheme will encourage mortgage lending
Record ID:
189466
SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi finance minister hopes housing scheme will encourage mortgage lending
- Title: SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi finance minister hopes housing scheme will encourage mortgage lending
- Date: 7th May 2014
- Summary: RIYADH , SAUDI ARABIA (MAY 06,2014) (REUTERS ) VARIOUS OF ARAB AND INTERNATIONAL DELEGATES AT THE EUROMONEY 2014 CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF SAUDI BANKS AND FINANCIAL ASSOCIATIONS AT THE CONFERENCE CHAIRMAN OF EUROMONEY INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR PLC, RICHARD ENSOR, OPENING THE CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF DELEGATES ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) FINANCE MINISTER, IBRAHIM AL-ASSAF, SAYING: "The importance of housing to improve the population's standard of living has received considerable attention in the government's policy. It is expected to contribute to regulations in the mortgage finance system and in the promotion of sustainable financing for this sector by creating the necessary framework to encourage banks and finance companies to provide funding for citizens." ASSAF THANKING AUDIENCE LOGO OF EUROMONEY CONFERENCE SPEAKER ON PODIUM ECONOMY AND PLANING MINISTER, MUHAMMAD AL-JASSER, SPEAKING ON PODIUM AUDIENCE LISTENING (SOUNDBITE ) (Arabic) ECONOMY AND PLANING MINISTER, MUHAMMAD AL-JASSER, SAYING: "The efforts to develop economic policies in the Kingdom has focussed over the past few years on enhancing the productivity of the workforce and raising the productivity of various sectors of the economy in general, and within this context are tireless efforts made by the Kingdom to build a solid foundation for a knowledge-based economy." VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE LISTENING AND APPLAUDING SPEAKERS LEAVING STAGE
- Embargoed: 22nd May 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Saudi Arabia
- Country: Saudi Arabia
- Topics: Economy
- Reuters ID: LVAF07P0KQJGT54TB6OYV3770RKV
- Story Text: Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf called on banks on Tuesday (May 6) to provide more credit to house buyers, as part of a government housing initiative.
After social discontent prompted uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world in 2011, King Abdullah announced a plan to build 500,000 homes in Saudi Arabia over several years at the cost of about $67 billion, but the programme proved slow to get underway, partly due to difficulties in obtaining suitable land.
A new scheme, named ESKAN - the Arabic word for housing - launched by the Ministry of Housing in March 2013, aimed to break through such bottlenecks.
Speaking at the Euromoney Conference in Riyadh, Assaf said that the government's housing initiative would encourage financial institutions to increase lending to buyers.
"The importance of housing to improve the population's standard of living has received considerable attention in the government's policy. It is expected to contribute to regulations in the mortgage finance system and in the promotion of sustainable financing for this sector by creating the necessary framework to encourage banks and finance companies to provide funding for citizens," Assaf said.
Economy and Planning Minister Mohammed al-Jasser said the government would take new "qualitative measures" to improve its economic development, signalling a potential shift of emphasis in its drive to raise living standards by spending tens of billions of dollars on welfare.
The huge increase in welfare spending has helped buy social peace in Saudi Arabia and has spared the kingdom the kind of upheaval that toppled governments elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring.
But there have been signs that the government may no longer believe it can simply spend its way out of trouble.
At the conference, Jasser did not elaborate on the new "qualitative measures" for state spending, but said that economic policies will continue to focus on enhancing productivity, and encourage more innovation.
"The efforts to develop economic policies in the Kingdom has focussed over the past few years on enhancing the productivity of the workforce and raising the productivity of various sectors of the economy in general, and within this context are tireless efforts made by the Kingdom to build a solid foundation for a knowledge-based economy," Jasser said.
Saudi Arabia's 2014 state budget projected spending to rise a modest 4.3 percent from 2013, the slowest rate in a decade, suggesting the kingdom has decided to rein in fiscal policy after massive expansion driven partly by the uprisings in the Arab world. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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