Saudi Arabia to post lower deficit in 2018: Al Rajhi Capital

Saudi Arabia’s budget deficit of SAR 48.98 billion in the first nine months of 2018, as reported yesterday, puts the government in a comfortable position to increase spending and clear payables by year-end, Al Rajhi Capital said in a new report on Thursday.

“So far in nine months of 2018, the government has spent around SAR 712 billion out of the SAR1030 billion allocated (revised) for the year. This implies that about 31 percent of the budgeted expenditure will be seen in Q4 2018,” the consultancy noted.

This balance, it said, is better than what was seen in the past year, where around 38 percent of the expenditure was realized in the fourth quarter.

Al Rajhi Capital expects deficit of SAR 138 billion for 2018 as compared to government estimated deficit of SAR 148 billion.

It noted that the deficit in nine months of 2018, being SAR 49 billion was less than the financing obtained in H1 2018, which was SAR 30 billion by internal borrowing and SAR 22 billion in terms of external borrowing and hence there was no funding required in Q3.