Welcome to the Mideast Money newsletter, I’m Adveith Nair. Join us each week as my team and I chronicle the intersection of money and power in a region that’s become one of the most influential in global finance. You can sign up here.
Today, we look at an unforeseen consequence of Egypt’s devaluation, a luxury resort in Saudi Arabia — and a potential step towards legalized gambling in the UAE. But first, over to our Gulf sovereign wealth funds reporter Matthew Martin for his take on Saudi Arabia and China.
China hawks in the US, wary of the growing influence of the People’s Republic in Saudi Arabia have had plenty to signals that they could worry about in the past few weeks.
Yasir Al Rumayyan, a key lieutenant of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, led a large Saudi delegation to Beijing this month and met with China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng. As governor of the kingdom’s powerful $925 billion sovereign wealth fund and chairman of Aramco, Al Rumayyan (also the country’s point person for Saudi-China relations) holds sway over the two most important economic engines for Saudi Arabia.
