Saudi Arabia: Reserve Fund falls by $1.6bn in October

Saudi Arabia’s State General Reserve Fund fell from 496.04 billion Saudi riyals, in September, to 490.06 billion Saudi riyals ($130.7 billion), in October, marking a decline of nearly six billion Saudi riyals.

The surplus in the budget revenues is conventionally transferred to the State General Reserve Fund. It may be withdrawn only by a Royal Decree, in cases of extreme necessity relating to the higher interests of the State.

According to data published by Saudi media on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s current account also declined from 70.68 billion Saudi riyals in September to about 47.59 billion Saudi riyals in October 2019.

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The assets of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) decreased in October to about 1.877 trillion Saudi riyals from about 1.9 trillion Saudi riyals.

Saudi Arabia expects the budget deficit for this year to reach 131 billion Saudi riyals (about $35 billion), which represents about 4.2 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while unofficial estimates indicated that the deficit would rise to about 187 billion Saudi riyals.

Public debt is also expected to increase to 678 billion Saudi riyals (about $180 billion) in 2019, according to this year’s budget.