Saudi Arabia’s 2018 budget to be expansionary, says Al-Jadaan

Saudi Arabia’s budget next year will be “expansionary but not significantly” in line with plans to balance state finances by 2020, Saudi finance minister, Mohammed Al- Jadaan, told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

The expansion will come “from the efficiency,” since unnecessary expenses will be cut, and will be utilized in more productive investments, he added.

The government started preparing the 2018 budget last January, Al-Jadaan said, adding that the first draft should be ready in two months.

The Kingdom’s first-ever quarterly budget revealed that fiscal deficit was cut by 71 percent year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 26.2 billion in Q1 2017. Total revenues came in at SAR 144 billion, surging 72 percent year-on-year, Argaam reported.