23.05.2014 - Saudi Arabia’s investments: Oil-fuelled caution
Gulf countries disclose scant details about their sovereign-wealth funds (SWFs), but Saudi Arabia is the most cautious investor, says Michael Maduell of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, an American outfit which tracks them. Most of the $750 billion hoard it has piled up over the past decade of high oil prices is sitting at the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency, the country’s central bank. It invests its reserves mainly in bonds and equities, rather than less liquid but more lucrative assets such as property. In 2008 the government set up a more adventurous investment arm, Sanabil. But it holds assets of perhaps $5 billion, compared with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s $773 billion or Kuwait Investment Authority’s $410 billion.............................................Full Article: Source
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