Via Tim Callen in agsiw.org: Given its central role in the global economy, what happens in the United States is of great importance to the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia is no exception given its close ties to the United States, central role in the global oil market, and long-standing exchange rate peg (along with the other Gulf Cooperation Council countries except Kuwait) to the U.S. dollar, which allows it to benefit from the credibility of U.S. monetary policy. Economic studies have highlighted that the health of the U.S. economy is an important determinant of Saudi economic growth.

Via Charles Kennedy in oilprice.com: Lower crude oil prices dragged Saudi Arabia’s oil export revenues to the lowest level in more than three years in August, amid underwhelming oil demand and continued supply constraints from the world’s top crude exporter. The value of Saudi Arabia’s oil exports in August 2024 stood at $17.4 billion (65.3 billion Saudi riyals), down by 15.5% from $20.6 billion (77.3 billion riyals) in August 2023, data from the Kingdom’s General Authority for Statistics showed on Thursday.

Via Hadeel Al Sayegh and Rachna Uppal in reuters.com: Global financiers are poised to flock to Saudi Arabias annual flagship investment conference next week as a tightening of the kingdoms purse strings and a deepening of regional conflict cloud the outlook. Among those expected to descend on the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh are top CEOs, including Goldman Sachs David Solomon, BlackRocks Larry Fink, Citigroups Jane Fraser and the London Stock Exchanges Julia Hoggett.

Via Anna Fleck in statista.com: India, China, Russia and the United States are forecast to see contractions in their economic output between 2024 and 2025. In Russia, this change is expected to be most pronounced, dropping 2.3 percentage points. Meanwhile, 2025 is forecast to be an improved year for growth in the United Kingdom, Japan and Germany. U.S. has had an upwards revision to a forecasted growth of 2.8 percent in 2024, from the previously estimated 2.6 percent. In 2025, growth is expected to slow to 2.2 percent in the U.S. as fiscal policy is gradually tightened and a cooling labor market slows consumption. This is still an improvement from the July forecast, which had estimated growth at 1.9 percent.

Via Anjana Sankar and Willy Lowry in thenationalnews.com: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh on Wednesday as part of a diplomatic push to “end the conflicts” in the Middle East. Mr Blinken “emphasised the need to end the war in Gaza, free the hostages and enable the people of Gaza to rebuild their lives free from Hamas, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a readout of the meeting.

Via Karim Sadjadpour in foreignaffairs.com: These two countries are historic rivals with irreconcilable goals. Vision 2030 appeals to national aspirations, whereas Vision 1979 taps into national grievances. Vision 2030 seeks a security alliance with the United States and normalization with Israel; Vision 1979 is premised on resisting the former and eradicating the latter. Vision 2030 is propelled by social liberalization; Vision 1979 is anchored in social repression.

Via Adelaide Changole in bloomberg.com: The country hopes developing a secondary market for mortgages would allow banks to offer borrowers lower interest rates and improve the cost of home ownership, BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink said at a conference in Johannesburg. In August, BlackRock signed an agreement with Saudi Real Estate Refinance Company — the state-owned equivalent of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the US — to develop the real estate finance market in the kingdom. “Spreads are much wider than if there was a securitization market,” Fink said. “It would be much narrower and the homeowners would benefit, so the cost of home ownership would go down.”

Via Rachna Uppal in reuters.com: The International Monetary Fund further lowered its GDP growth forecast for Saudi Arabia for 2024 to 1.5% and estimated growth to accelerate to 4.6% next year in its latest World Economic Outlook Report released on Tuesday. In July, the IMF lowered its GDP projections for Saudi Arabias 2024 GDP by nearly a percentage point from its April estimates to 1.7%. Growth for the Middle East and Central Asia region is forecast at 2.4% in 2024, and projected to increase to 3.9% next year as temporary disruptions to oil production and shipping are expected to fade away, the IMF said.

Via Mostafa Salem in cnn.com: In a rare meeting this month, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, who once called Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the “new Hitler of the Middle East,” sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Riyadh. It was the third meeting between Iranian and Saudi officials in one month. Tehran’s top diplomat also met Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman and made a rare trip to Egypt for a meeting with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi in Cairo. He has also met Qatar’s prime minister in Doha, the Omani foreign minister in Muscat and the Bahraini king in Manama.

Via Louise Taylor in theguardian.com: Leaked WhatsApp ­messages from the former Newcastle minority co-owner Amanda Staveley obtained by the Telegraph suggest the buyout hinged on the approval of Bin ­Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader. Although the £305m ­takeover led by Saudi’s Public Investment Fund in 2021 was approved only once the Premier League received “legally binding assurances” that the Saudi state would not control Newcastle, it is understood the governing body will not be re-examining its legitimacy.

Via Maria Abi-Habib and Ismaeel Naar in nytimes.com: A diplomatic détente is underway in the Mideast, but not the one envisioned by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to say that his administration can clinch a deal with Riyadh. This month, the foreign ministers of the Persian Gulf states met for the first time as a group with their Iranian counterpart. It is a shaky, early-stage rapprochement that will only chip away at centuries of sectarian antagonisms, but it represents a sharp shift in a region where the rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran has drenched the region in bloodshed for decades.

Via Nesibe Hicret Battaloglu and Nikolay Kozhanov Nikolay Kozhanov in amwaj.media: Russia last month invited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to attend the Oct. 22-24 BRICS summit it is hosting in Kazan. The summit is the bloc’s first since its expansion last year when six new members—Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—were invited to join. While countries such as Iran have been quick to accept the invite, the Kingdom has yet to confirm its formal alignment with BRICS. Most likely, Saudi strategists are still weighing all pros and cons of membership—with factors in favor and against broadly balanced.

Via Arif Islam in sportspromedia.com: More than 100 professional women’s soccer players have signed an open letter to Fifa urging the global governing body to end its sponsorship with Saudi oil giant Aramco. Fifa confirmed a deal with Aramco, which is majority-owned by the Saudi government, in April. The company will sponsor both the 2026 men’s World Cup and 2027 Women’s World Cup in an agreement reportedly worth up to US$100 million a year.

Via Qassim Abdul Zahra in apnews.com: Iraq’s commission governing media announced Saturday that it would take steps to revoke the license of a Saudi television station to operate in the country. That came hours after dozens of supporters of Iraqi militias stormed and looted the office of the broadcaster, MBC, in Baghdad in protest over a report that described a number of Iranian-linked militant figures — including a prominent Iraqi militia leader — as “terrorists.” The report on “terrorists” who had been killed this century mentioned former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden alongside a roster of Iran-backed figures.

Via Humeyra Pamuk in reuters.com: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will depart for the Middle East on Monday, the State Department said, as Washington is pushing to kickstart ceasefire negotiations to end the Gaza war following the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. The top U.S. diplomats latest trip to the region, his eleventh since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas that triggered the Gaza war, comes even as Israel has intensified its military campaign in Gaza and in Lebanon against Iran-aligned militia Hezbollah.