Saudi Arabia needs reform to attract investment and lower deficit

Saudi Arabia needs reform to attract investment and lower deficit

Saudi Arabia must reduce its budget deficit and speed up its regulatory reforms if it is to remain competitive in a tight global market, its finance minister told a conference in Riyadh this week.  The country needs to get “the budget deficit down to 2 percent (of spending) or less than that, that’s how a […]

Aiming for sub-2% deficit

Regulatory reform needed

‘We are not fast enough’

Saudi Arabia must reduce its budget deficit and speed up its regulatory reforms if it is to remain competitive in a tight global market, its finance minister told a conference in Riyadh this week. 

The country needs to get “the budget deficit down to 2 percent (of spending) or less than that, that’s how a country becomes more resilient and is able to help other countries,” Mohammed Al-Jadaan told the Saudi Capital Market Forum. 

Saudi Arabia recorded a budget deficit of SAR81 billion ($21.6 billion) in 2023, as expenditure increased against a backdrop of falling oil revenue, the finance ministry said last week. That was around 6 percent of total expenditure of SAR1.3 trillion. 

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