April 25, 2024 (EIRNS)—The International Monetary Fund announced that it has opened a regional office in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on the claim that it wants to enhance its partnership with Middle Eastern countries. According to Egypt’s Al Ahram News, the announcement was made at a conference which the IMF and Saudi Finance Ministry organized in Riyadh on April 24-25. The conference itself is reviewing industrial development policies of the region.
The purpose of the IMF’s new regional office is to “scale up capacity building, regional surveillance, and outreach to promote stability, growth, and regional integration, according to Al Ahram. The office’s first director will be Abdoul Aziz Wane of Senegal, who previously served in the IMF’s Africa department.
The establishment of the first IMF office in the region comes at a time when oil-rich Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been investing their dollars more and more in Africa and other developing countries, probably at the expense of purchasing dollar assets. Also, the U.A.E. is a new BRICS member and is involved in discussions among that group on developing new financial instruments that bypass the dollar. Saudi Arabia has also been nominated for BRICS membership, though it has not yet decided to join.
