Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia on Sunday announced that it forecast to eliminate its budget deficit by 2023, on the back of diversifying its revenues and the recovery of oil prices, the French news agency (AFP) reported.
The Saudi government will continue to plug the budget gap through a raft of economic reforms, including the implementation of Saudisation and reassessment of government spending, head of the Ministry of Finance’s (MoF) fiscal policy department Saad Alshahrani said.
“The deficit is expected to continue to decline gradually over the medium term... until it reaches the fiscal balance by 2023,” Alshahrani added.
Earlier this year, the oil-rich nation announced plans to diversify its income, such as investment in the recreation sector, the privatisation of some state-run firms, alongside increasing electricity and fuel prices, and raising fees on expatriates.
In the same vein, Saudi Arabia has sought to sell a stake in oil giant Aramco, expected to collect more than $100 billion.
Aramco’s initial public offering (IPO) has been the centerpiece of the crown prince’s “Vision 2030” reform plan, intended to diversify the kingdom’s economy and invest more heavily in infrastructure.
During the first half of 2018, the Kingdom’s economy turned around in view of a 67% surge in revenues and the rebound of oil prices.
In September, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) report “recommended reducing the government wage bill, as part of measures to bring the deficit down to 1.7 percent of growth domestic product (GDP) in 2019,” the French news agency noted.
The GCC nation started suffering from budget deficits, which passed $260 billion since the 2014 after oil prices plunged.
