The Saudi Central Bank announces the extension of the Deferred Payments Program - one of SAMA's programs to support private sector financing - until the end of the first quarter of the year 2021. This is in order to maintain empowering the financial sector to play its role in supporting the MSME sector, and to contribute to supporting economic growth and maintaining employment in the private sector.

                This step in line with the role of the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia in maintaining monetary stability, supporting the financial sector, enhancing confidence in it and supporting economic growth, and as part of the Government ongoing efforts to deal with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the measures taken to mitigate its effects.

                It is worth noting that the number of contracts benefiting from the payment deferral program since its launch on March 14, 2020 to date has exceeded 87,000 contracts, while the value of the payments for those contracts amounted to about 77.3 billion riyals.