by OZGE YILDIRIM – Saudi Arabia is making a big cut in its spending due to coronavirus. It has been reported that strict measures will be taken to reduce expenditures in response to the decrease in revenues due to the new type of coronavirus epidemic. “Saudi Arabia needs to reduce its budget expenditures to a large extent, given the decline in the oil and non-oil revenues due to the restriction decisions made in the context of the epidemic,” said Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Mohammed al-Cedan. said. Stating that Saudi Arabia will take very tight and even “painful” measures in this regard, all the options will be evaluated to overcome the crisis, Cedan said that some projects will be implemented in the future due to the epidemic. Cedan stated that the new type of coronavirus (Kovid-19) does not reflect the effect yet and that the real effect will occur in the second quarter and after. Regarding borrowing, Cedan said that a total of $ 58.7 billion would be borrowed, $ 26.7 billion more than planned before the coronavirus. Accordingly, Saudi Arabia’s overall debt will rise by 6.7 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the end of 2019, to a total of $ 192.9 billion. In his previous statements, Minister Cedan stated that, together with the coronavirus, he reduced the government’s budget by 50 billion rials.

“Neither Saudi Arabia nor the world will be like the pre-coronavirus. There has been no similar crisis since the Second World War,” said Saudi Arabian Finance Minister Mohammed al-Cedan. terminated with the statement. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and ranked third in production, with 70 percent of its budget based on oil. Due to the decline in crude oil demand due to Kovid-19, prices decreased by 60 percent since the beginning of the year. The Saudi budget deficit in the first quarter of this year ($ 9.1 billion). International credit rating agency Moody’s preserved Saudi Arabia’s credit rating at “A1” level, while changing its outlook from “stable” to “negative”. Budget deficit, which was 6.4 percent compared to previous expectations, was replaced by an expectation of an increase between 7 and 9 percent after the spread of coronavirus. In the statement made regarding the Saudi Arabia 2020 budget, it was stated that this year’s revenues will be $ 222 billion, while expenditures will be $ 272 billion, accordingly, a deficit of $ 50 billion is expected. According to the latest data in Saudi Arabia, the number of deaths due to coronavirus increased to 176, while the total number of cases in the country increased to 25 thousand 459.