degree of formal co - ordination – for example, most g10 central banks reduced their interest rates by 50 basis points on 8 october 2008. beyond that there was a fairly consistent set of responses stemming from a common assessment of the seriousness of the potential threat. so the global downturn could have been much worse than it eventually was, but policy makers everywhere supported financial systems where needed, eased monetary policy and eased fiscal policy, to support demand. the responses, by and large, were quite quick. in the countries at the centre of the crisis, these policy efforts have borne fruit. but they have been working against the powerful headwinds of private sector de - leveraging. hence in those cases the recovery thus far has been quite hesitant. economic activity remains well below the peak level seen in 2007 or 2008, and in some of these economies it may not regain that level for another year or two. it is in this sense, actually, that the downturn in parts of the advanced world may well turn out to be the most costly in generations : the forecast slowness of the recovery implies a very large cumulative amount of lost income in some cases. in other episodes of serious recession, once conditions for recoveries were in place, they proceeded quite strongly. people are not confident of those sorts of outcomes this time ( indeed many forecasters and financial markets will be seriously wrong - footed if a rapid recovery in the crisis - hit countries does occur ). observers in some countries even wonder whether their trend growth rate may have been impaired for a lengthy period by what has occurred. but most countries did not have a bank solvency crisis. they had an acute liquidity crisis for a couple of months in september and october 2008 when the global financial system went into cardiac arrest, but thereafter those problems began to ease – mainly due, it must be said, to actions of governments and central banks in the major countries. since in most countries banking systems were generally sound, the headwinds have not been blowing as strongly in asia or latin america as in some other regions. accordingly, the policy stimulus applied in these countries appears to have been pretty effective in supporting demand. once money markets and trade finance began to thaw, recovery proceeded at a very strong clip. in east asia outside japan and china, industrial production is now a little above its previous peak. in china, it surpassed the 2008 peak in the middle of last year and kept rising, while in india it never really fell. despite the slow growth of

and approved the building of 500, 000 housing units in all regions of the kingdom over the coming five years with allocations of rls 250 billion. the limit of housing loans extended by the real estate development fund was increased from rls 300, 000 to rls 500, 000 which will hopefully provide more houses for citizens and constrain the inflationary pressures stemming from the increase in house rents. you also ordered setting a minimum wage of rls 3, 000 for all saudi government employees, allocated a monthly amount of rls 2, 000 for job seekers, and raised capital of the saudi credit and saving bank by rls 30 billion. the number of family members covered by the social security was increased from 8 to 15 with an allocation of rls one billion for that purpose. the government subsidies for charity associations rose by 50 percent to rls 450 million annually, and needy families ’ sons and daughters were supported to join bis central bankers ’ speeches universities through allotting them a portion of seats, facilitating their admission requirements, and exempting them from some tuition fees. this package of honorable royal decrees will enhance the standard of living of the least - income segment of population and promote its ability of saving and, thereby, raise its future productivity and income, and reduce poverty, to which you always attach considerable attention. in the health care arena, you ordered supporting the ministry of health with rls 16 billion in order to carry out the expansion of a number of hospitals and health centers. you increased the maximum limit of the ministry of finance ’ s financing program of private hospitals from rls 50 million to rls 200 million. this would hopefully enhance health care services in the kingdom. under your wise leadership and continuous guidance, the supreme economic council continued to accomplish a number of development steps aimed at restructuring and reorganizing the economy and streamlining regulations and legislation in order to promote the rise of the level and competitiveness of the economy, achieve the optimum operation of the production factors and provide an attractive environment for domestic and foreign investment. as a result, the investment environment has improved. according to the “ doing business report 2012 ” issued by the world bank, the kingdom ranked twelfth among 183 world countries in terms of ease of business performance. the executive board of the international monetary fund noted that the kingdom was well posed to encounter the global financial crisis. however, the sound supervisory and regulatory frameworks significantly contributed to strengthening the capacity of the financial sector to withstand the crisis. the board stressed that