Foreign investors pumped 1.37 billion riyals ($365.3 million) into the Saudi domestic market last week, a figure higher than the average liquidity of foreign buyers in the local stock market during the past three months, official figures released Sunday by the Saudi Stock Exchange “Tadawul” showed. The rise in net purchases in the domestic stock market by foreign investors reflects the high level of reliability on the Saudi economy and on the economic reforms the Kingdom has been carrying out. The net purchase of Saudi institutions during last weeks trading amounted to 1.96 billion riyals ($522.6 million) while the net liquidity of Gulf investments declined by a very limited amount. These positive developments come as Moodys rating agency is betting on the strength of the Saudi banking sector. In a report released last week, Moody’s said that the credit growth is expected to rise four percent in Saudi Arabia amid a return of economic expansion. Moody’s said that it expects the country’s economy to grow 1.3 percent in 2018 after contracting 0.7 percent in 2017. The Saudi Stock Market index ended the day on a slight decline of 0.2 percent, closing at levels of 7,728 points, a loss of only 17 points amid trading worth about 3.8 billion riyals (about one billion dollars). Talking about the banking sector in Saudi Arabia, the financial results of Saudi banks listed on the local market show that Saudi banks gross profit last year increased by 8.7 percent compared to the profits achieved in 2016. Saudi banks made a net profit of 44.9 billion riyals ($11.9 billion) last year, a very high-profit rate that underscores the vitality of Saudi Arabias financial sector. For his part, Vice President and Senior Credit Officer at Moodys Olivier Panis said: "Recovering oil prices, record budget expenditure and government efforts to protect households from the impact of economic reforms will be the main drivers of credit demand in 2018 and 2019.” "While lending to corporates will recover only gradually, particularly in the construction, manufacturing and transport sectors, retail lending will remain supported by solid growth in mortgages,” he stressed.