Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf, pictured March 22 in Riyadh, says Saudi Arabia is ‘now… Saudi Arabia plans to sell bonds for the first time to international investors as the kingdom tackles a widening budget deficit caused by cheap oil, according to the country’s finance minister. “We are now working on issuing international bonds,” Ibrahim Al-Assaf told reporters late Tuesday on the sidelines of a news conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia and its oil-exporting neighbors in the Persian Gulf region are increasingly looking to access capital markets as shrinking oil revenue pressures their finances. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported last month that Saudi Arabia was preparing to tap international bond markets sometime this year. The kingdom borrowed $10 billion from a consortium of global banks in April and could raise as much as $15 billion by selling international bonds, some bankers […]