Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Arabia won't amend its economic reform plans after oil prices have turned a corner, Minister of Finance Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan said.
Higher oil prices are to contribute to boosting reserves and reducing the budget deficit, Al-Jadaan told CNBC on Wednesday.
He has stressed that the GCC nation is willing to push forward on economic and social reforms, which are paramount to wean the economy off oil revenues and achieve a "sustainable income".
In 2017, " a lot has been achieved in terms of fiscal discipline, the government has been really very efficient in its spending and, overall, non-oil revenue has been as planned or even in certain parts (of the economy) better than planned," the minister further indicated.
Over the course of the last two years, Saudi Arabia managed to reduce its deficit by 40% thanks to the hike of its oil revenues, he noted.
Stable outlook for the economy
Notably, Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday has affirmed Saudi Arabia’s credit rating at (A1) with a stable outlook.
Saudi Arabia's "reform programme, including the plans to balance the fiscal budget by 2023, could over time offer a route back to a higher rating level," the New York-based rating agency said in a report.
On a related note, the Saudi official stated that government had previously expected 2018 budget deficit to hit SAR 195 billion ($52 billion) or 7.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP), compared to SAR 230 billion a year earlier.
Al-Jadaan commented that the kingdom’s fiscal results in the first quarter of 2018 revealed a growth in non-oil revenues.
Responding to a question on whether or not solid oil prices would affect the Saudi Vision 2030, he said: "Oil prices are a market dynamic. I don't think it's up to oil producers to set the price otherwise we would not have seen prices below $30 a few years ago.”
