Money, money everywhere

One day Saudi Arabia announces that it will build a $27bn King Abdullah Economic City. The next day, just as investors are adjusting to the notion of an alcohol-free Financial Island employing 60,000 professionals, news comes of a $17bn Saudi order for Eurofighter jets. For a country with a GDP of under $300bn, it sounds like free spending, even if the money will be disbursed over many years. But it’s not really. Saudi Arabia will run a trade surplus of $72bn in 2005, according to HSBC, about e...