AFP, Riyadh :
Saudi Arabia unveils its 2016 budget on Monday with the oil powerhouse expected to project a huge deficit following the collapse of crude prices.
The world’s biggest oil exporter posted a budget deficit of $17.5 billion last year, the first since 2009, and is forecast to post a shortfall of about $130 billion this year.
In a break with past practice, three Saudi ministers and a senior official of state oil giant Aramco will appear at a press conference in Riyadh on Monday to explain the new budget.
The 2016 budget, the first since King Salman took over the country in January, may contain significant changes in spending and revenue policy as Saudi Arabia adapts to oil prices that have fallen by more than 60 percent since mid-2014 to below $40 a barrel.
The dive is largely due to Saudi Arabia’s own policies and those of other OPEC nations, who are refusing to cut production as they seek to drive less-competitive players, including US shale producers, out of the market.
Riyadh maintained high spending this year, and launched an expensive military intervention in Yemen, by tapping into the huge fiscal reserves it accumulated when oil prices were high.
Saudi Arabia unveils its 2016 budget on Monday with the oil powerhouse expected to project a huge deficit following the collapse of crude prices.
The world’s biggest oil exporter posted a budget deficit of $17.5 billion last year, the first since 2009, and is forecast to post a shortfall of about $130 billion this year.
In a break with past practice, three Saudi ministers and a senior official of state oil giant Aramco will appear at a press conference in Riyadh on Monday to explain the new budget.
The 2016 budget, the first since King Salman took over the country in January, may contain significant changes in spending and revenue policy as Saudi Arabia adapts to oil prices that have fallen by more than 60 percent since mid-2014 to below $40 a barrel.
The dive is largely due to Saudi Arabia’s own policies and those of other OPEC nations, who are refusing to cut production as they seek to drive less-competitive players, including US shale producers, out of the market.
Riyadh maintained high spending this year, and launched an expensive military intervention in Yemen, by tapping into the huge fiscal reserves it accumulated when oil prices were high.
