Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan confirmed that the Saudi economy has become stronger than ever, despite the challenges the world faced in recent years, as the non-oil economy grew by 5.4 percent in the second quarter of 2022, in real terms compared to the same period last year, while the GDP recorded growth in the same period of 11.8 percent.

He said, in the opening speech of the "Euromoney Saudi Arabia 2022" conference hosted by the capital Riyadh, that according to the International Monetary Fund for 2022, GDP growth is expected to reach 7.6 percent, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

He pointed to the launch of the Financial Sector Development Program and the Fintech Strategy, which seeks to keep pace with rapid development and achieve qualitative leaps in financial services that align with the continuous development in business and services in the Kingdom. The strategy aims to increase the number of fintech companies operating in the Kingdom to 230 companies and increase the share of non-cash transactions to 70 percent by 2025.

He also explained that the number of licensed fintech companies increased from two companies in 2018 to 59 companies until the second half of this year, in addition to the achievement of venture investment growth in the Kingdom, during the first half of 2022, by 244 percent compared to the first half of 2021, surpassing the total funds invested in Saudi startup companies in the full year of 2021, with record investments amounting to 2.19 billion riyals, (584 million dollars).