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Saudi Arabia is committed to increasing spending on projects and other productive sectors to support its economy against volatile oil sales, the Kingdom’s Finance Minister said in press comments on Wednesday.
Mohammed Al-Jadaan said higher expenditure has created a persistent budget deficit but added the shortfall is “deliberate” and has no impact on the country’s financial position given its massive overseas assets.
“The Government has opted to spending more to speed up the implementation of its strategies and domestic projects...so, it has no problem with a limited budget deficit, which is not worrying at all,” Jadaan told the Saudi daily Asharqlawsat.
“The Government does not mind having a shortfall as long as spending goes to economic activities and productive sectors...we in Saudi Arabia have large financial reserves which we intend to maintain in order to counter any financial shocks.”
Jadaan noted that public spending increased by around 11 percent in 2023 to nearly 1,293 billion Saudi riyals ($344.8 billion) and that a large part of the increase was in capital expenditure, mainly in projects.
“We are also working seriously to attracting domestic and foreign investments which can play a major role in stimulating the economy and reducing the deficit.”
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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