Saudi Arabia will lower government spending in 2020 as the Kingdom’s economic and social reforms start to kick in. That could help reduce Saudi Arabia’s medium-term fiscal vulnerabilities to lower oil prices, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) said, and put Saudi on track for a balanced budget by 2023.
Saudi Arabia is now on a “much more secure” fiscal trajectory than a few months ago given the efforts to restrain spending, Garbis Iradian, IIF’s chief economist for the Middle East and North Africa, said according to The National.
The kingdom’s ability to balance the budget in the next three years “is now more likely with public debt remaining below 30 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and IIF’s assumption of oil being slightly above $60 per barrel,” according to the report.
[Click here to read more from The National] [Link to the IIF’s report (subscription required)]
