At Mamo Michelangelo, a French cuisine fine-dining spot in Riyadh, the next available dinner slot is in mid-September.
The restaurant’s reservations phone line that never stops ringing is evidence of the potent fuel propelling a Saudi economic rebound that’s defying gloomy forecasts: billions of dollars in “trapped spending,” money kept at home by some of the world’s tightest travel restrictions during much of the pandemic.
While many countries saw a major domestic spending boost during the health emergency, Saudi Arabia’s an outlier because its above-forecast growth can’t be attributed to stimulus.
The world’s largest oil exporter greeted Covid-19 with one of the most muted assistance packages in the G-20. Instead, it tripled value-added tax to shore up its finances and slimmed down an aid program for the poorest. The austerity approach sparked predictions of a prolonged slowdown.
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