The quarterly report issued by the Saudi Ministry of Finance on the performance of the general budget during the first quarter showed that the Saudi Kingdom achieved revenues of 192 billion riyals during the 3-month period from January to the end of March 2020.
On the other hand, the Kingdom’s budget expenditures during the same period (January to March) of the year amounted to 226.2 billion riyals, thus the budget deficit reached 34.1 billion riyals.
The Saudi government has taken a number of precautions to tackle the Coronavirus, including increasing spending on the health sector in addition to a number of initiatives to support the private sector and small and medium-sized companies.
The results of the financial performance for the first quarter of the year 2020 showed that the volume of oil revenues reached 128.77 billion riyals, compared to 169 billion riyals in the first quarter of 2019, while the value of non-oil revenues amounted to 63.3 billion riyals, compared to 76.3 billion riyals in the corresponding period of last year. The value of tax revenues on goods and services reached 30.4 billion riyals, and other income 23 billion riyals. With regard to financing, the first quarter figures revealed obtaining financing from the current account with a value of 9 billion riyals, financing from an internal debt of 11.2 billion riyals, and 18.5 billion riyals of external financing.
The Saudi Ministry of Finance started to announce quarterly budget data, since 2017 with the aim of enhancing transparency.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, Edited)
