The paper offers insights to the day-to-day economic events unfolding with an analytical touch to all significant events that have touched Saudi Arabia's economy.

Saudi Arabia and Arab News has an obligation, being the largest economy in the Middle East, to inform a wide, very international, audience. The paper has made many poignant remarks over the past few years about Saudi Arabia's economic drive to advance and modernize. This in many ways is a testament to the country's global role, as a systemic contributor to stability.

Saudi Arabia's position in the global oil market has always been marked by moderation, predicated on the need to balance the needs of producers and consumers. Saudi Aramco has invested more than $70 billion over the past few years to lift its oil capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day and is intending to invest $120 billion over the next six years in oil and petrochemical projects. But Saudi Arabia is not simply the "gas station" of the world. Saudi Arabia is an important contributor to the world's fiscal stimulus through its high propensity to import but also huge remittance outflows every year.

Saudi Arabia while trying to diversify its economy is supporting the balance of payments outlook of many emerging market economies. Arab News has also been able to highlight the importance of maintaining a sound and prudent foreign asset policy by the country's central bank, SAMA. It is because of the country's ability to maintain high and liquid foreign assets that permitted Saudi Arabia to embark on counter-cyclical fiscal policies and maintain high government spending without accumulating any additional government debt.

This in itself makes Saudi Arabia one of the most unique countries in the G20. Good managers are tested not in good days, when all is rosy and nice but in difficult and challenging times. In Saudi Arabia, it is the institutions put in place, based on the lessons drawn during the challenging times of the 1980s and 1990s, which led to the very healthy macroeconomic standing the country is currently enjoying.

And it is during the difficult days of the global financial crisis that Arab News was able to maintain a high level of reporting. There is no doubt that without Arab News, Saudi Arabia's economy would not have been properly explained or understood to a very global readership.

- John Sfakianakis is the general manager and chief economist at Banque Saudi Fransi, Riyadh.