Moody's Investors services had issued its regular update of its credit opinion report on The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (A1, stable outlook). The agency noted that “the stable outlook reflects our view that risks to Saudi Arabia's credit profile are broadly balanced. Positive developments could stem from the implementation of wide-ranging reforms that enhance competitiveness and private-sector employment while moving the budget towards balance as the government projects to happen by 2023.”

The agency also added that “increasing confidence that structural reforms aimed at reducing the reliance of Saudi Arabia’s economy and public finances on oil revenues are more effective than in our baseline scenario could, over time, support higher rating.”

The agency forecasted Saudi GDP growth for the period (2019-2020), to be 2.5% and 2.5%, respectively. Moody's also said that plans to diversify The Kingdom's economy away from oil could contribute to the country's medium and long term economic growth. The agency also noted that “popular support for the government's ambitious reform momentum remains very high.”

In terms of institutional strength, the Agency highlighted the improvement in the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) in terms of the Kingdom's ranking in government effectiveness and control of corruption since 2015.

Moody's attributed that the increase in non-oil revenues, which reached 10.1% in 2018 from 4.5% in 2014, to the financial reforms; such as value added tax and correction of energy prices.