Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, the Prime Minister of Economic and Development, stressed that improving the standard of living of citizens is at the heart of the efforts of the government to diversify the economy and achieve financial stability. Generating more jobs for citizens.
"The announcement of the largest government spending program in the history of the Kingdom is a strong indication of the success of our efforts to improve public finance management, despite the drastic decline in oil prices," he said in a press statement following the announcement of the state budget for the fiscal year 1439H - 1440H (2018). From previous years ยป.
He stressed that the 2018 expansionary budget included a comprehensive set of new development initiatives aimed at achieving the financial and economic stability that was outlined in the vision of 2030 by stimulating the main economic sectors, which contributes to generating employment opportunities, improving the basic services provided to citizens and developing infrastructure projects He added that the public spending in the state has been coordinated to achieve the development goals for the coming fiscal year. The expenditure will come from three main sources. "The budget expenditure will reach 978 billion riyals. In addition, 50 billion of the development funds will be allocated Erosion of national development to be funded residential, industrial and mining projects fund, will also stimulate the private sector packages. The third source of capital and investment spending that will support the economy and development is investment spending within the Kingdom from the Public Investment Fund to finance its new and existing projects. The fund is expected to spend up to SR 83 billion in the next fiscal year, Nearly one trillion Saudi riyals in 2018.
Salman stressed that the Saudi government will do all it can to promote economic growth and improve the standard of living of citizens, noting that a large proportion of total estimated capital expenditure in 2018, amounting to about 338 billion Saudi riyals "will come from the Public Investment Fund, Capital spending from the budget will be 205 billion Saudi riyals and a big leap in capital spending. "
The Crown Prince said that spending of the Public Investment Fund for the coming year will lead to more economic development and create more job opportunities for citizens and help the private sector to open new fields of investment. He pointed out that the budget includes earmarked allocations to provide more residential products, and will support the delivery of 700 thousand homes fiber-optic network to provide telecommunications services to help citizens to obtain more services through the high-speed Internet.
He also pointed out that the economic reform programs under the vision of Saudi Arabia 2030 are beginning to achieve tangible results. Nearly 50 percent of this year's budget will be financed from income and non-oil sources, including new non-oil revenues, Praising the efforts of all ministries and government agencies to raise the efficiency of expenditure and the provision of funds through the adoption of the most efficient and developed work methods in the government sector.
"These developments are tangible evidence of the progress made in this framework, and they underscore the need to continue to pursue financial sustainability and economic diversification through which we seek to reduce our dependence on one major source of income," he said.
He praised the reduction in the budget deficit for the current fiscal year by more than 25 percent compared to the previous fiscal year, despite rising spending. He noted that the government aims to reduce the budget deficit next year to be less than 8 percent of GDP "despite the large size and expansion of the budget."
