On July 16, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services raised its foreign and local currency long-term sovereign credit ratings on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to 'AA-' from 'A+'. At the same time, the local and foreign currency short-term ratings were raised to 'A-1+' from 'A-1'. The outlook is stable. Standard&Poor's also raised the transfer and convertibility (T&C) assessment on Saudi Arabia to 'AA+' from 'AA'. The upgrade primarily reflects Saudi Arabia's extremely strong and rapidly improving external and fiscal positions. Driven by record oil receipts, foreign reserves and liquid foreign assets managed by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) have increased sharply in recent years, and are expected to top $330 billion by year-end 2007 (versus $136
