AFP, Riyadh :
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Thursday projected another budget deficit in 2017 but reported a less-than-expected shortfall for this year after cutbacks in the face of lower oil prices.
It is the first budget since the kingdom, aiming for a balanced budget by 2020, announced a wide-ranging plan to wean the economy off its oil dependency.
Budget figures show the kingdom is making progress in that goal.
Non-oil revenues in the Arab world’s biggest economy rose this year to 199 billion riyals ($53 billion) or 38 percent of total income, up from 28 percent last year and 13 percent two years ago.
This year’s deficit will be 297 billion riyals ($79 billion), with a shortfall next year of 198 billion riyals ($53 billion), cabinet said in a statement.
The 2016 deficit is down 8.9 percent from 2016’s budget forecast, and is based on expected revenues of 528 billion riyals.
Spending is expected to come in at 825 billion riyals for 2016, down 16 percent from last year after cuts in major projects, cabinet said.
Expenses next year will reach 890 billion riyals ($237 billion) against revenues of 692 billion riyals ($184 billion), it said in a statement.
“This budget comes at a time of a highly volatile economic situation… and which led to a slowdown in world economic growth and a drop in oil prices that impacted our country,” King Salman said with Finance Minister Mohammed Aljadaan seated nearby at a table of cabinet ministers.
The kingdom froze major building projects, cut cabinet ministers’ salaries and imposed a wage freeze on civil servants in the wake of last year’s record deficit of $97 billion.
Analysts said that figure was 15 percent of gross domestic product, making it one of the largest in the emerging world.
OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia on Thursday projected another budget deficit in 2017 but reported a less-than-expected shortfall for this year after cutbacks in the face of lower oil prices.
It is the first budget since the kingdom, aiming for a balanced budget by 2020, announced a wide-ranging plan to wean the economy off its oil dependency.
Budget figures show the kingdom is making progress in that goal.
Non-oil revenues in the Arab world’s biggest economy rose this year to 199 billion riyals ($53 billion) or 38 percent of total income, up from 28 percent last year and 13 percent two years ago.
This year’s deficit will be 297 billion riyals ($79 billion), with a shortfall next year of 198 billion riyals ($53 billion), cabinet said in a statement.
The 2016 deficit is down 8.9 percent from 2016’s budget forecast, and is based on expected revenues of 528 billion riyals.
Spending is expected to come in at 825 billion riyals for 2016, down 16 percent from last year after cuts in major projects, cabinet said.
Expenses next year will reach 890 billion riyals ($237 billion) against revenues of 692 billion riyals ($184 billion), it said in a statement.
“This budget comes at a time of a highly volatile economic situation… and which led to a slowdown in world economic growth and a drop in oil prices that impacted our country,” King Salman said with Finance Minister Mohammed Aljadaan seated nearby at a table of cabinet ministers.
The kingdom froze major building projects, cut cabinet ministers’ salaries and imposed a wage freeze on civil servants in the wake of last year’s record deficit of $97 billion.
Analysts said that figure was 15 percent of gross domestic product, making it one of the largest in the emerging world.
