2023-11-01T20:57:36+00:00
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/ Saudi television reported, on Wednesday, that the Kingdom recorded a budget deficit of 35.7 billion riyals ($9.52 billion) in the third quarter of the year.
Total revenues in the third quarter amounted to 258.5 billion riyals.
Al-Ekhbariya TV reported that oil revenues amounted to 147 billion riyals during the same period, while non-oil revenues amounted to 111.5 billion.
At the beginning of last October, the Saudi Ministry of Finance announced that it had revised its budget forecasts in a negative direction, expecting a deficit for the current year until 2026, which reflects the rise in expenditures and the decline in oil revenues.
The wealthy Gulf Kingdom, the world’s largest exporter of crude oil, had planned to achieve a surplus of 16 billion Saudi riyals ($4.27 billion) in 2023, according to the ministry’s pre-budget statement.
Saudi Arabia announced in December 2022 that it had recorded its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade, benefiting from a record rise in oil prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Oil revenues this year fell by 17 percent as prices fell and Riyadh cut production in an attempt to boost prices.
The Kingdom’s daily production currently stands at 9 million barrels per day, a decrease of two million barrels compared to the same period last year.
Since Prince Mohammed bin Salman assumed the position of Crown Prince in 2017, Saudi Arabia has been pursuing an ambitious and costly reform program for Vision 2030 aimed at stopping the economy’s dependency on fossil fuels.
Currently, Saudi Arabia is investing hundreds of billions in various sectors, starting from “NEOM”, the new futuristic city on the Red Sea coast, to tourist and entertainment resorts for the masses, including football, where it has attracted a number of stars of this sport with expensive contracts.