Saudi Arabia moves to fiscal sustainability, develops 5-year plans: Al-Jadaan

Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan

Saudi Arabia moved to the stage of fiscal sustainability, and developed plans for periods of three, five and up to 10 years in some industries, said Saudi Minister of Finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, on the sidelines of the Budget Forum 2023.

This was spurred by the Kingdom’s huge structural reforms implemented over the past five years, which led to limited independence on a volatile source of spending, he noted.

Al-Jadaan indicated that the Kingdom took proactive measures in 2022, based on the analyses that demonstrated that the huge allocations set aside over the pandemic period will lead to inflation.

Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to take proactive measures to temper inflation through setting an energy price cap. The government provided Saudi Aramco with tens of billions to compensate for the below-global-price sales. In addition, the SAR 20 billion support package led to recording a surplus and accordingly eliminated inflation levels, he noted.