In his first reshuffle since acceding to the throne in 2005, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has dismissed two of the country’s most influential religious figures and appointed the first woman to a senior government post.
King Abdullah has also replaced Hamad al-Sayyari, 68, the long-serving governor of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the central bank, with Mohammed al-Jasser, his 54-year-old deputy. Mr Jasser, a former Saudi representative to the International Monetary Fund, has served as Sama deputy governor since 1995.
The newly appointed central bank governor on Sunday signalled that the kingdom would abide by the conservative policies of his predecessor. Unlike other Gulf states, which have active sovereign wealth funds, the notoriously cautious kingdom is estimated to have invested about 85 per cent of its foreign reserves – currently more than $500bn (€388bn, £348bn) – in dollar-dominated fixed-income securities.
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