Saudi Arabia Faces Cash Crunch After Prolonged Oil Rout

Saudi Arabia’s mountain of oil money is shrinking.

After years of raking in cash from lofty prices, oil-producing countries are getting squeezed by the crash in crude oil prices.

Even mighty Saudi Arabia.

The cash crunch caused the OPEC leader to sell bonds over the summer to raise at least $4 billion. It was the first time Saudi Arabia tapped the bond markets in eight years.

Now there are signs Saudi Arabia is pulling out cash from global asset management firms like BlackRock (BLK).
The Saudi central bank has yanked $50 billion to $70 billion over the past six months, Nigel Sillitoe, CEO of financial services market intelligence firm Insight Discovery, told CNNMoney.

By freeing up cash held overseas, the Saudis are shoring up its finances at home.
“The Saudis feel much more comfortable bringing liquidity home in times of crisis. They like to keep cash on hand,” said Michael Nayebi-Oskoui, Middle East and South Asia analyst at Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence and advisory firm.

via CNN

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza