Saudi divests billions to cover oil deficit

Saudi Arabia

RIYADH, September 28, 2015 – Saudi Arabia has withdrawn tens of billions of dollars in international assets in response to deficits caused by low oil prices.

According to one anonymous hedge fund manager, it was “Black Monday” when traders learned that Saudi had withdrawn a substantial amount in global assets last week – somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of total Saudi assets.

The Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency has withdrawn between $50 billion-70 billion over the past six months. The country is seeking to keep the economy afloat as the price of oil has halved since 2014.

“The big question is when will they come back, because managers have been really quite reliant on [the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency] for business in recent years,” CEO of financial services company Insight Discovery Nigel Sillitoe said to the Financial Times.

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