Investments of Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), the Kingdom’s wealth fund, will support credit growth among companies in the country, ratings agency S&P Global Ratings said on Monday. The Fund has recently announced investment initiatives expected to “spur corporate credit growth, mostly in construction-related industries,” according to S&P. The agency believes that this will offset the gradual lifting of support aimed at easing the impact of the pandemic. The Saudi Central Bank said on Sunday it had extended a deferred payment program to support private sector financing for an additional three months until June 30 as part of measures to stem the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. It also said a guaranteed financing program had been extended for an additional year until March 14, to support small and medium enterprises. S&P predicts the domestic credit growth in Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, to stay strong this and next year after a 14 percent year-on-year increase in 2020. It indicated that part of the growth is due to the rising demand for housing from Saudi nationals, which has boosted mortgage growth. “Over the next couple of years, we forecast that mortgage portfolios will expand by about 30 percent a year.”