Riyadh - SPA

In its session  chaired by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on 26th of December 2011, the Cabinet approved the budget for the new fiscal year 1433/1434 AH.

Announced by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the new budget amounted to SR 690 billion.

More than SR168 billion of public expenditures was approved for general education, higher education and workforce training. More than 700 new boy and girl schools will be established.SR87 billion are allocated for the health sector and social development.The budget approved more than SR29 billion for municipal services, more than SR35 billion are allocated to roads, transport and communications and approximately SR 58 billion for Water, industry, agriculture and other infrastructure.

The Minister of Finance expected the gross domestic product for this fiscal year 1432/1433 (2011) will amount to SR2.163 billion at current prices, an increase of 28% over the previous fiscal year 1431/1432 H (2010) as a result of the growth of the petroleum sector by 40.9 %. Regarding the GDP of the non-oil public and private sector, it is expected to achieve a growth rate of 14.3% as growth of the government sector is expected to reach 14.5% and the private sector by 14.3 % at current prices. In terms of fixed prices, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to score a 6.8 percent growth. The oil sector is expected to grow by 4.3 percent while the GDP for the non-oil sector is expected to grow by 7.8 percent as the governmental sector is expected to grow by 7.6 percent and the private sector by 8.3 percent. Hence, the private sector's contribution to the GDP will reach 48.8 percent. All economic activities composing the domestic product for the non-oil have achieved positive growth. The real growth in the transformable non-oil industries is estimated at 15 percent, the communications, transport and storage 10.1 %, electricity, gas and water 4.2 %, construction and building 11.6 %, wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels 6.4 % and capital services, insurance, real estate and business services 2.7 %.
He explained that the record for living cost, the most important index for the general level for prices, has soared over the year 1432 /1433 (2011) by 4.7 % compared to 1431/1432 H. (2010) according to the General Statistics and Information estimates.

Recess of the GDP for non-oil sector is expected to increase by 6.1 % in 1432/1433 H. (2011) compared to last year.
The minister added that the public debt is expected to decrease by the end of the current fiscal year 1432/1433 H. (2011) to nearly SR135,500,000,000 representing 6.3% of the expected GDP for the fiscal year 1432/1433 H. as compared to SR167,000,000,000 by the end of the last financial fiscal year 1431/1432 (2010) representing 10% of the GDP for 2010.