Publisher: Maaal International Media Company
License: 465734
Saudi citizens await the announcement of the state budget for the fiscal year 2025 tomorrow, Tuesday, in a session of the Council of Ministers dedicated to this.
It is worth noting that the preliminary statement issued by the Ministry of Finance at the beginning of this November for the Kingdom’s 2025 budget expected revenues to reach 1.184 trillion riyals, with spending reaching 1.285 trillion riyals, with a deficit of 101 billion riyals.
The Ministry of Finance’s statement includes actual revenues, spending, and deficit for the year 2024. It is worth noting that the state estimated its revenues for this year at 1.172 trillion riyals, while it estimated spending at 1.251 and set the deficit at 79 billion riyals.
Regarding 2024, the Ministry of Finance expected revenues to reach 1.237 trillion riyals by the end of the year, and spending to reach 1.355 trillion riyals, with a deficit of 118 billion riyals.
The statement indicated the achievement of growth rates in the gross domestic product supported by the growth of non-oil activities; which contributed to the prosperity of promising sectors such as tourism, entertainment, transportation, logistics and industry, in addition to improving the quality of life, empowering the private sector, and reducing the unemployment rate to its lowest levels in history, which was positively reflected in the expectations of international organizations and credit rating agencies for the performance of the Saudi economy.
The statement reviewed the most prominent expectations for the year 2024, including recording real GDP growth of 0.8% in 2024. Supported by the growth of non-oil activities, which is expected to record approximately 3.7%, in addition to the fact that the recent decline in interest rates is expected to contribute to an increase in demand, which may positively affect economic growth, and initial expectations indicate that the consumer price index (inflation rate) will reach about 1.7% by the end of 2024.