Saudi Arabia's PIF has said that it is intending to cut overseas investments and focus on domestic opportunities.Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference earlier today in Riyadh, PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said that it will cut international investments by a third.Al-Rumayyan said that it intended to cut the proportion of foreign investments to around 18-20%, from 30%. He did however make the point that the growth in foreign activity had grown from 2% previously.
The strategy had been to focus on the so-called "super-region" of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.The dialling back - or at least, not expanding on investments - is not a great signal for the sector, especially as sovereign wealth funds have been seen for a while as the white knights for the struggling industry.