A sharp increase in oil prices and output will allow Saudi Arabia to record large fiscal surplus despite an expected surge in spending because of benefits announced by King Abdullah over the past weeks, according to a western financial institute.
The Washington-based Institute for International Finance (IIF) also said it had revised up its earlier forecast for Saudi Arabia’s GDP growth from 3.5 to 5.3 per cent because of the projected sharp rise in spending.
Citing Saudi private estimates, it put the total value of social benefit packages at around SR467 billion, equivalent to 27 per cent of 2010 GDP.
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