The Saudi budget for 2023 reported total revenues of approximately $322.6 billion (1.21 trillion riyals), with expenditures amounting to about $344bn (1.29trn riyals), resulting in a deficit of around $21.58bn (81bn riyals), reports Al Arabiya.
According to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, actual budget revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 were 357.984bn riyals, and expenditures for the same period were about 394.979bn riyals.
Non-oil revenues for 2023 reached approximately 457.728bn riyals, marking an 11 per cent increase from the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2023, non-oil revenues amounted to about 108.773bn riyals.
Oil revenues for 2023 were about 754.6bn riyals, with a significant 28pc increase to 249.2bn riyals in the final quarter of the year.
However, non-oil revenues saw a 12pc decrease to 108.8bn riyals in the last quarter of 2023, compared to around 123.8bn riyals in the same quarter of 2022.
To finance the deficit, Saudi Arabia relied on external borrowing for about 75pc, amounting to 60bn riyals, and sourced approximately 21bn riyals from the local debt market.
The kingdom’s public debt reached 1.05trn riyals at the end of 2023, up from 990.08bn riyals the previous year, with internal debt at 644.4bn riyals and external debt at around 405.9bn riyals.
In 2023, spending on health and social development increased by 13pc to 255.9bn riyals, while education spending rose by 4pc to 209.9bn riyals.
Military expenditures also increased by 12pc to 254.5bn riyals by the end of 2023.
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