Saudi Arabia recorded its first annual budget surplus in nearly a decade, beating its own projections, largely driven by its oil investments.
The surplus for 2022 amounted to $27 billion, representing 2.6% of GDP, according to preliminary estimates, the finance ministry reported on Wednesday.
In a media briefing, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan attributed the surplus to the large investments the kingdom made in its oil and gas sector as well as growth in non-oil sectors, as officials push the Vision 2030 agenda of economic diversification.
“We invested a lot of money when people did not,” he said.
“We are not celebrating the surplus. For us it’s not really big news. It’s something that we expected. We’ve been working… to curtail our spending, to increase our non-oil revenues.”
Oil prices have fallen considerably in recent weeks despite a decision made in October by the OPEC+ to cut production by two million barrels per day.
