Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia has earmarked around SAR 33 billion for energy, industry, mining, and logistics sector in the 2019 budget, the energy minister said.
This amount is considered more than three times from the amount allocated in the 2018 budget, Khalid al-Falih told Reuters.
On Tuesday, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz said that the 2019 budget is the largest in the kingdom's history, indicating that “we are determined to go ahead with economic reform, achieving fiscal discipline, improving transparency and empowering private sector.”
The Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated that the government of Saudi expects non-oil revenue to increase to SAR 313 billion in 2019, up from 287 billion riyals in 2018, while public expenses will hit a record high next year.
On a related note, the Minister of Finance Mohammed Al Jadaan said that the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 2.6% in 2019, compared with 2.3% in 2018.
It's worth noting that the Saudi 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.
