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DAVOS: Saudi Arabia is a “bright spot” for a global economy facing slowdown this year, a panel of finance experts and Saudi ministers said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said the Kingdom had predicted the trend of global inflation before other countries, meaning it was able to take measures to insulate itself. “Because of the stimulus packages that the world has put in the global economy, by July 2021 we saw the signs, and we realized we needed to take steps to protect the Saudi economy, and we have done that successfully,” he said. He added that freezing local energy prices was among the mitigation measures. While global inflation is above 8 percent, Saudi Arabia’s average is 2.6 percent. Forecasts show that inflation in the Kingdom “will not be as high” in 2023, the minister said, adding: “There is a lot of work being done to insulate the Saudi economy but also help the global economy.” He said that the Kingdom is changing the way it provides assistance to allies. “We used to give direct grants and deposits without strings attached, and we are changing that.” Panelists pointed to the long-term approach of Vision 2030 as a contributing factor in the resilience of the Kingdom’s economy. The vision, they said, helped Saudi Arabia adapt when dealing with global challenges including COVID-19, the Ukraine-Russia war, rising inflation and food and energy insecurity. Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, said that Vision 2030 had made Saudi Arabia a “bright spot for the world economy and in its own region in a particularly difficult time for the world.” The Kingdom, she said, would provide the economic growth that the world needed as a global slowdown was expected to persist in 2023 due to the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s latest COVID-19 emergency. She said Saudi Arabia had an effective fiscal policy, had tackled energy and food insecurity and was striving for a more diversified economy. “I don’t know how many countries during this difficult time had the courage to increase their debt-to-income ratio from 6 to 15 percent. Saudi Arabia did,” she added. “Saudi Arabia takes its good fortunes to heart to play an important role in energy and food security and in addressing the incredible challenge of debt.”