Saudi is gearing up for another year of heavy borrowing on the back of record 2016-17 fundraising (MEES, 29 September 2017) as it seeks to kickstart its economy. It’s starting with refinancing a $10bn international loan raised in 2016. The original loan, for five years, was Saudi Arabia’s first international loan since 1991 (MEES, 29 April 2016). The refinancing will raise the loan to $16bn.
The Ministry of Finance’s Debt Management Office (DMO) on 2 March confirmed that participating banks had agreed to a 30% cut in the cost of the loan, originally priced at around 120 basis points over Libor. (CONTINUED - 169 WORDS)
