The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s budget for the year 2022 recorded a financial surplus of 102 billion riyals, which is the first financial surplus witnessed by the Saudi budget since 2013.
According to Arabiya.net, this surplus amounted to 2.6% of the gross domestic product, supported by the increase in oil revenues.
According to what was announced by the Saudi Ministry of Finance, revenues in 2022 amounted to about 1.234 trillion riyals, compared to the estimate when setting the budget at 1.045 trillion riyals, while expenditures were also higher than initial estimates, at 1.132 trillion riyals, compared to initial estimates of spending 955 billion riyals. .
The last surplus achieved by the Kingdom's budget was in 2013, at 180 billion riyals. However, since 2014, the budget began to witness a deficit that reached its highest level in 2015 at 367 billion riyals. In 2016, the deficit was about 300 billion riyals, to gradually decrease until 2019, but the year of the pandemic (2020) returned the budget to record a leap in the deficit before it returned to decline in 2021.
Expectations for the medium term indicate that surpluses will continue to be recorded in the Saudi budget, which, according to expectations, will reach 71 billion riyals in 2025.
2023 budget
The ministry also revealed estimates of the Kingdom's budget for the year 2023, which includes expectations of a surplus of 16 billion riyals.
The Saudi finance expects to achieve revenues next year at 1.130 trillion riyals, compared to expenses at 1.114 trillion riyals.
According to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, the 2023 budget aims to strengthen the government's financial position by maintaining safe levels of government reserves to enhance the Kingdom's ability to deal with external shocks, as fiscal policy aims to strengthen government reserves with the Saudi Central Bank with part of the expected surpluses.
The fastest growth among the G20 countries
On the other hand, the Saudi economy grew by 8.5% in 2022, which is the fastest growth this year among the G20 countries, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund.
It is noteworthy that the Saudi budget recorded a surplus of about 14.14 billion riyals in the third quarter of 2022, after recording revenues of 301.87 billion riyals, compared to expenses of 287.73 billion riyals.
From the beginning of this year until the end of the third quarter, the Saudi budget recorded revenues of 950.19 billion riyals, compared to expenses of 800.65 billion riyals, achieving a surplus of about 149.54 billion riyals.
On the other hand, the total public debt in Saudi Arabia reached 985 billion riyals by the end of 2022, declining to 24.9% of GDP.
