Saudi Arabia Budget Pushes Private Sector to Contribute

Three Saudi officials have explained the impact of expansive spending on the private sector in the state budget of 2018. This comes after the kingdom's announcement on Tuesday of the biggest budget in the history of the country in terms of spending volume.   In this context, Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid al-Falih, Minister of Commerce and Investment Majed al-Qasabi and Supervisor of the Public Investment Fund Yasser al-Rumayan held a joint press conference in Riyadh on Wednesday.   Qasabi said that the state budget of 2018 will enable businessmen to contribute in the growth. He also stressed the importance of SMEs, noting that the package of motivational programs that were announced to boost the private sector grants great great importance to SMEs.   Falih said that the Saudi movements with other oil producing countries contributed in the recovery of oil prices in 2017.    “We aim to increase oil production level this year in addition to operating Jazan refinery and signing a number of projects driven from the atomic energy program.” He noted that the private sector will be a prime partner in the atomic energy program.   Public Investment Fund Yasser al-Rumayan said the growth of PIF’s investment portfolio reached SAR840 billion of assets in 2017 from SAR579 billion in 2015 and that the Fund invested nearly SAR70 billion in local and international investments in 2017.   According to state budget 2018, the kingdom allocated SAR978 billion of spending (USD260.8 billion) in addition to SAR83 billion (USD22.1 billion) that will be invested and surged through PIF and SAR50 billion (USD13.3 billion) to be surged through national funds.