What Drove Saudi Arabia’s Pension System Upgrade?

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00:00Let's start by talking about Saudi Arabia's improved ranking, improved grade.

00:05I mean, what are the most significant factors behind this?

00:08Well, as you said, this is a study that we've been doing for 17 years now.

00:11So we study, review, evaluate and compare about 52 countries

00:16and retirement systems of 52 countries around the world,

00:19covering about 65% of the global population.

00:22Saudi Arabia this year is one of eight countries to improve their ranking from C plus to B.

00:27And it's really a number of factors around what we call the three pillars of pension fund design.

00:33Adequacy, sustainability and integrity.

00:36And Saudi Arabia has made progress across all three of those.

00:38And it's a culmination of several years of work.

00:40It's not one single factor.

00:42It's a culmination of several years of work that they've been, their focus has been on this.

00:45It's been a priority for them from a policymaking perspective.

00:49It's primarily around this year, around more comprehensive data on minimum pension levels.

00:55They've also made changes and revisions to contribution and accrual rates for new entrants into the scheme.

01:02And over the course of the last 18 months, there's been a number of legislative actions around the state pension age,

01:07which is now 65 in Saudi Arabia, as well as a variety of other things that have contributed to the strength of the system.

01:15It's already a very robust system with some very strong features.

01:17And they've done a lot of work specifically on the areas of integrity and adequacy.

01:21And they've done a lot of work with some very strong features.