Saudi Arabia adopts record budget

The Saudi Arabian government has approved the largest budget in the history of the kingdom with revenues of 975 billion Saudi riyals (about $215 billion), Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said.

He said that this budget is the largest budget in the history of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. "Its goal is to support economic growth, increase cost effectiveness and achieve sustainability and financial stability within the framework of Vision 2030 goals," Sputnik cited Abdulaziz as saying.

The expenditure part of the budget amounted to 1106 trillion riyals ($294.8 billion), whereas the budget deficit was estimated at 131 billion Saudi riyals ($34.92 billion).

The budget was adopted for the fiscal year 1440-1441 (2019), according to the Islamic Hijri calendar, which started on September 11, 2018.