The International Monetary Fund's Middle East director, Masood Ahmed has welcomed Saudi Arabia's economic reform plan. He described it as "an ambitious, far-reaching effort."
"Now they have a national transformation plan, which is an ambitious, far-reaching effort, although the details still have to come out. What is clear is that it envisages not just an effort to try and balance the fiscal outlook for Saudi Arabia over the next five years by raising revenues and cutting back spending, but it also looks at how to transform the economy away from being so dependent on oil. Those are welcome objectives and that is exactly the kind of transformation that an economy like Saudi Arabia needs," he said.