Mohammed bin Salman stressed that the 2018 expansionary budget included a comprehensive set of new development initiatives.

:: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman affirmed that improving the standard of living for Saudi citizens is at the heart of the efforts being pursued by the Kingdom’s government to diversify the economy and achieve financial stability and generate more jobs for citizens.

The Crown Prince said in a press statement following the announcement of the state budget for the fiscal year 1439/1440 H (2018) that this is the largest government spending program in the history of the Kingdom and it is a strong indication of the success of the efforts to improve public financial management, despite the significant decline in oil prices from previous years, according to Saudi Press Agency.

Mohammed bin Salman stressed that the 2018 expansionary budget included a comprehensive set of new development initiatives aimed at achieving financial and economic stability characterizing vision of 2030.

Main economic sectors

It is planned to stimulate the main economic sectors, thus generating employment opportunities, improving basic services to citizens and developing infrastructure projects.

The crown Prince highlighted that the expenditure of the public sectors in the country has been coordinated to achieve the development goals for the next fiscal year and that the expenditure will come from three main sources as the budget will reach 978 billion riyals, in addition to 50 billion assigned from the development funds under the National Development Fund which finances residential, industrial and mining projects.

The third source of capital and investment spending will support the economy and the development in investment spending within the Kingdom from the Public Investment Fund to finance its new and existing projects.

The fund is expected to spend up to 83 billion riyals in the next fiscal year, thus increasing the total public spending to more than 1.1 trillion Saudi riyals in 2018.

The Saudi Crown Prince said that government will do all it can to promote economic growth and improve the standard of living of citizens pointing out that a large proportion of the total estimated capital expenditure in 2018 of approximately 338 billion Saudi Riyals will come from the Public Investment Fund and the National Development Fund (133 billion) and that the capital expenditure of the budget (205) billion Saudi riyals will constitute a major leap in capital expenditure.