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Saudi Arabia posts record budget deficit
Riyadh, which is the world’s top oil exporter, announced on Monday a record budget deficit of Dollars 98 billion in 2015, while projecting a budgetary shortfall of USD 87 billion next year.
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Saudi Arabia also announced plans to shrink the record state budget deficit with spending cuts and a drive to raise revenues from sources other than oil. However the International Monetary Fund thinks the deficit will be much higher at $130 billion, while some other projections estimated it to be above $100 billion.
The decision comes on the heels of a dramatic drop in oil prices over the last 18 months that have hit its oil revenues hard. In tandem, revenues were down 15% from official expectations, reaching $162 billion (£108.7 billion). He promised to diversify the kingdom’s revenues beyond oil, which now accounts for 90 per cent of the government’s income.
The de facto leader of the world’s 12-member oil cartel, Opec, Saudi Arabia has led the move to drown the world with excess supply in a bid to undercut higher cost rivals such as U.S. shale.
Aramco, the national oil conglomerate said on twitter that all petrol stations will close with immediate effect on Monday till midnight, and will resume with new prices.
Subsidies for water, electricity and petroleum products would be adjusted over five years, said the ministry.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview this week aired on a Russian television channel Saudi Arabia was to blame for the collapse in crude oil prices, Oil Gas Daily reported.
Seeking to ward off future fiscal crises, the ministry of finance confirmed wide-ranging economic reforms, including plans to “privatise a range of sectors and economic activities”. It spent 975 billion riyals in 2015, the equivalent of about $260 billion in United States currency. He said Saudi Arabia had increased its military and security spending in 2015 by about 20 billion riyals because of the conflict.
Jadwa Investment’s forecast report, which was released on Wednesday, said the Saudi economy will grow by only 1.9 percent next year, down from this year’s figure of 3.3 percent and 3.5 percent in 2014, AFP reported.
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The kingdom withdrew more than $80bn this year from its reserves, which stood at $732bn at the end of 2014, and issued bonds worth about $20bn.