Riyadh — Mubasher: Saudi Arabia’s 2019 budget has cut military spending for a second straight year, while education is set to acquire the budget’s biggest allocation, according to official projections.
The oil-rich kingdom, which is one of the world’s leading weapons buyers, is expected to slash military spending by 12% in the next year budget estimated at SAR 191 billion ($51 billion), Bloomberg News reported.
Saudi spending on education will fall by 6% to SAR 193 billion. Overall outlays are forecast to increase by 7% as the GCC nation boosts capital investment.
Saudi Arabia’s cutbacks “may reflect expectations that [the nation’s] war in Yemen is drawing to a close,” the New York-based news agency said.
On Tuesday, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz did not comprise soldiers fighting in the war in Yemen in his decision to extend a package of cost-of-living allowances for another year, it added.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia, the Middle East’s biggest economy, heads a coalition that intervened in Yemen in an effort to support the government against pro-Iranian rebels.
The two sides reached a ceasefire deal in a key port city this month, in a step toward ending what has turned into the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, according to Bloomberg.
