Al-Jadaan says time to put more money into people’s hands

Saudi Arabia’s decision to stop allowances and bonuses last year was aimed at boosting growth, but now that the plan has worked it is time to put money back into the hands of the people, finance minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan told CNN.

"It was done at a time [when] we were really worried about oil prices, worried about other stresses in the economy," Al-Jadaan said.

"Now that we have seen how the plan is unfolding... maybe it's time to inject more funding into the people's hand," he added.

The kingdom is currently working on a plan to cut oil dependency and won't be impacted if the price drops to $40 a barrel by 2020.

"We are planning to totally [end] that dependency that we have been living for the last 40, 50 years. Hopefully by 2030, I wouldn't care if the oil price is zero," he said.

The Kingdom’s first-ever quarterly budget last week revealed that fiscal deficit was cut by 71 percent year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 26.2 billion in Q1 2017. Total revenues came in at SAR 144 billion, surging 72 percent year-on-year, Argaam reported.