Saudi Has Spent Almost Half of $400-Billion Plan

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Saudi Arabia has spent about half of its $400 billion five-year economic development plan and may finish the program ahead of schedule, Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said today.

“We’ll see the expenditure accelerating” this year, al- Assaf said in an interview in Kuwait. “I think we’ll be ahead of the timetable.”

The kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, announced the spending program in 2008 to bolster the economy. It was the largest stimulus package in the Group of 20 nations as a percentage of gross domestic product. Al-Assaf told an investors’ conference in Riyadh on Jan. 24 that “continuous stimulus” is needed even as the economy rebounds from last year’s stagnation.