Saudi Arabia’s economic growth will likely slow to below 2% this year as the government of the world’s biggest oil exporter cuts spending after the plunge in crude prices, a senior central bank official said. “We know that the Saudi economy depends largely on government spending - it’s the engine of the economy - and in a lesser way on the private sector,” Ahmed Alkholifey, deputy central bank governor for research and international affairs, said on Thursday. “This year the predictions show that it will not reach 2 percent in any case, and there are some predictions that it will decrease to less than 1 percent,” Alkholifey said. (Bloomberg)