Riyadh/Kuwait City : Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on Monday moved to eased worries about the health of their national economies.
Kuwait sought to restore confidence in its banking system yesterday by offering to pump cash into troubled Gulf Bank, which has been hit by losses from derivative deals.
A group of investors, meanwhile, protested in Kuwait City's financial district against the government's handling of the global financial crisis and urged the cabinet to resign.
Figures released yesterday showed inflation in July remained above 11 per cent. Kuwait's Central Bank Governor Shaikh Salem Abdul Aziz said Gulf Bank depositors did not need to worry.
"The central bank is ready to pump the necessary liquidity into Gulf Bank in case money is needed to tackle any withdrawal of deposits," Shaikh Salem told state news agency Kuna.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's central bank governor yesterday said no banks faced liquidity problems and the stock market rout was due to fear not fundamentals.
"There is not even one [bank] close to confronting problems," Hamad Saud Al Sayyari told reporters. "Banks in reality are in an excellent position."
The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the kingdom's central bank, has poured about $3 billion in US dollar liquidity into bank deposits over the past two weeks, the governor said.
