Moody’s Investors Service changed its outlook for Saudi Arabia’s banks to negative from stable on the expectation that bad loans will rise over the next 12 to 18 months because of low oil prices and a decline in government spending. Non-performing loans will rise to about 2.5 percent of total loans over the period, from a “very low average 1.4 percent in September 2015,” Olivier Panis, a vice president at the ratings firm, said in a statement on Wednesday. Banks will also remain exposed to loan defaults owing to their “persistently high single-party exposures,” the analyst said. Saudi Arabia’s economic growth will slow to 1.5 percent in 2016 and 2 percent in 2017, well below the 3.4 percent growth estimated for 2015 because of the impact of lower crude prices, according to Moody’s. Banks’ loan growth will slow to between 3 percent and 5 percent in 2016, from 8 […]