Name: Saudi Arabia posts $29 billion deficit in second quarter as oil revenues slump
Brand: reuters.com
SKU: reuters-com-1038
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Saudi Arabia posts $29 billion deficit in second quarter as oil revenues slump

preview

By DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia posted a deficit of 109.2 billion riyals ($29.12 billion) in the second quarter this year as low oil prices hurt revenues, a finance ministry report published on Tuesday showed.The coronavirus crisis has hurt the non-oil sectors of the world’s largest oil exporter this year, adding to the impact of historic price lows on the economy.Second quarter oil revenues fell by 45% year-on-year to $25.5 billion. Total revenues dropped 49% to nearly $36 billion.Total second-quarter expenditures dropped annually by 17% to around $65 billion, the report on quarterly budget performance showed, although spending increased when compared to Q1 by 7.5%.“A pullback in spending is essential for containing the deficit,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. “The proactive stance of the government was already reflected in the austerity measures announced in April. However, these will dampen the recovery outlook,” she said.Facing deep recession this year, Riyadh has introduced steps such as removing a cost-of-living allowance for state employees and tripling value-added tax to 15% to bolster state revenues.Economists have said this could restrict recovery as curbs aimed at reducing the spread of the cornavirus are lifted.The IMF has estimated the economy could shrink by 6.8% this year, a figure Saudi officials have said was “pessimistic”.Saudi Arabia, which in the first three months of 2020 posted a $9 billion deficit, has raised $12 billion in international markets so far this year and has borrowed 41.1 billion riyals ($10.96 billion) in the domestic market, the document showed.Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said this month the kingdom plans to tap international debt investors at least once more this year.In addition to borrowing, the government has used around $13 billion in government reserves in the second quarter to finance its deficit, budget data showed. That is largely within a $32 billion drawdown limit targeted by the government this year.Between March and April, however, the kingdom used $40 billion in foreign reserves to back overseas investments of its sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund.Reporting by Davide Barbuscia; editing by Jon Boyle, Larry King, William MacleanOur Standards:

By DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia posted a deficit of 109.2 billion riyals ($29.12 billion) in the second quarter this year as low oil prices hurt revenues, a finance ministry report published on Tuesday showed.The coronavirus crisis has hurt the non-oil sectors of the world’s largest oil exporter this year, adding to the impact of historic price lows on the economy.Second quarter oil revenues fell by 45% year-on-year to $25.5 billion. Total revenues dropped 49% to nearly $36 billion.Total second-quarter expenditures dropped annually by 17% to around $65 billion, the report on quarterly...

public

Davide Barbuscia

Top and breaking news, pictures and videos from Reuters. For more breaking business news, follow @ReutersBiz.

reuters.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Saudi Arabia posts $29 billion deficit in second quarter as oil revenues slump

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS