Governor Fahad al-Mubarak of the Saudi Arabia Central Bank said he was not worried that the US government shutdown would lead the US to default on its debt payments. He told reporters at the sidelines of meetings in Riyadh between Arab monetary and finance officials that he was not worried about the political deadlock. He said Washington had been through similar situations before but those had been resolved. He did not elaborate on his statement further.
According to a Reuters report, Saudi Arabia was one of the top holders of US government bonds. As the world's largest oil exporter, the government puts back most of its earnings into US assets. Reuters reported that most its net foreign assets amounting to USD 690 billion were believed to be in US dollars. Majority of those were said to be invested in US Treasury bonds.
Other monetary officials of the Gulf also told Reuters that they were confident with the US government in resolving its political deadlock and would not cause global markets much damage.
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