“The message that we very strongly got was that the expenditure path set out in the budget will be stuck to, regardless of where oil prices go to, which I think is the right thing to do.”
–Tim Callen, the IMF mission chief to the kingdom, said in an interview late Monday. Saudi Arabia is likely to use surplus oil revenue to rebuild reserves, breaking with its historical practice of boosting spending when crude prices rise, Bloomberg reports. Callen added that sticking to targeted spending “allows you then to really build the financial assets that have been run down in recent years.” [Bloomberg]
