Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz met with International Monetary Fund Director-General Rodrigo de Rato in Jeddah last night. In a statement following the meeting, Minister of Finance Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf said that King Abdullah called on industrial countries to reduce taxes or to avoid imposing taxes on petroleum products in order to ease the burden on consumers.

Dr. Assaf also said that the Kingdom has approved opening branches for banks of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states in Saudi Arabia.

For his part, de Rato praised Saudi Arabia’s assistance to developing countries in the region, and in particular  lauded the Kingdom’s relief and reconstruction aid to Pakistan following the October 8 earthquake.

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