Saudi announces $224B budget for 2016

Dec 29, 2015, 00:11

Revenues are projected at 513.8 billion riyals, the lowest since 2009, according to a statement posted on the ministry website.

Saudi Arabia said on Monday it was raising petrol prices by more than 50 per cent for some products from Tuesday as it cuts a range of subsidies after posting a record budget deficit. The 2016 budget plan aims to cut that to 326bn riyals, reducing pressure on Riyadh to pay its bills by liquidating assets held overseas.

Next year's budget also projects a significantly lower expenditure of 840 billion riyals, with the finance ministry saying that it would review government projects to make them more efficient and ensure they were necessary and affordable.

For 2016, the government allocated 213 billion riyals for military and security spending, the largest component of the budget as the kingdom fights a war in Yemen against Shiite rebels.

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The ministry said that oil income made up just 73 percent of total revenues in 2015, way below its contribution in previous years. Oil revenues are expected to reach $118 billion, a decline of 23 percent from the previous year.

Despite those moves, Saudi Arabia said it expects its budget deficit to basically remain the same in 2016.

In remarks broadcast on Saudi Arabia's state news channel on Monday, King Salman reassured the public at a government meeting that the priority remains developing and investing in social programs.

Until now utilities such as electricity and water have been heavily subsidised in Saudi Arabia, but the International Monetary Fund has recommended raising fuel prices to save around $17bn each year.

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The figures come after the price of Brent crude recently sank close to $36 a barrel, an 11-year low.

The increase in the price of these utilities, the first in several years, took many by surprise.

Oil income accounts for more than 90 percent of public revenues in Saudi Arabia. It also said reforms to energy and other subsidies will be carried out gradually over the next five years but did not give specific details. It comes on the back of sliding crude prices, with oil sales accounting for nearly 80 percent of the country's revenues.

It is the largest member of the Opec oil-producing cartel and has refused to cut output in order to raise prices in an attempt to put other producers - mainly USA shale oil companies - out of business.

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