Saudi Arabia’s economy will expand 5.3 percent this year, powered by higher oil prices and more government spending in the Arab world’s largest economy, National Commercial Bank said.
The economy will grow 4.2 percent in 2012, the Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-based bank said in an e-mailed report today. The kingdom will “benefit from the recent positive oil price shock” as it raises output 6.2 percent to average 8.8 million barrels a day this year, compared with last, the bank said.
The kingdom, which depends on oil for 86 percent of its revenue, announced increases in government spending in March as protests calling for more job opportunities and democracy engulfed the Middle East. The package included $67 billion on housing and funds for the military and religious groups that backed the government’s ban on domestic protests, and followed a $36 billion handout announced on Feb. 23.
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