Riyadh – Mubasher: Revenues of Saudi Arabia's government will increase by around SAR 14 billion in 2018 on the back of raising fuel and electricity prices, Saudi Arabia-based Jadwa Investment said on Wednesday in a report.
The kingdom's government has estimated the 2018 budget according to its commitment to the oil production cut deal with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the report added.
The research company forecast that the Saudi debt issue would not exceed SAR 117 billion in the new year that in return increases the public debt by the end of 2018 to SAR 555 billion, equivalent to 19% of the GDP, in case of not settling any debts.
Jadwa projected that the country’s budget will suffer a deficit of SAR 220 billion in 2018, compared to SAR 195 billion announced by the government which said that the new year budget's expenses and revenues would amount to SAR 978 billion and SAR 783 billion, respectively.
On Tuesday, the Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz announced the country’s 2018 budget.
The non-oil revenues in the budget became higher than the estimated and real revenues of 2017 budget by 37% and 14%, respectively.
The Kingdom is likely to have growing budgets until 2023 to reach SAR 1.34 trillion.
Jadwa expected that the net assets of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) will hit SAR 456 billion by the end of 2018.
Total expenses in 2018 will reach SAR 338 billion by the government, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF).
