The stars of the business world returned last week to Saudi Arabia's so-called Davos in the Desert, a conference formally known as the Future Investment Initiative (FII). And while it's true that their return this year indicates the extent of Saudi Arabia's rapid rehabilitation, the kingdom will need more than a glitzy attendee list of business elites to mend its economic troubles. Promising to wean the kingdom off oil, the program aimed to open the Saudi market in new ways, including plans to privatize state-owned entities and to sell up to 5% of oil company Saudi Aramco in a public offering. Saudi Aramco did finally announce Sunday plans for an IPO , but it was originally slated for 2018 and had been paused or delayed multiple times. On top of all this, the International Monetary Fund last month sharply cut Saudi Arabia's 2019 growth forecast to 0.2% from 1.9%, citing a decline in the kingdom's oil GDP resulting from the OPEC+ production cuts.

Source: CNN November 03, 2019 16:05 UTC