Western central banks may be pumping billions into the money markets to shore up liquidity and prevent the failure of financial institutions, but Saudi Arabia is desperately mopping up any surplus capital in its own economy.

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, the central bank, had issued $19.7bn (€13.8bn, £11.1bn) of treasury bills by the end of July – three times as much debt as for all of 2007 according to the National Commercial Bank – to drive up effective borrowing costs.