Saudi Arabia's budget deficit widened in the second quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, reaching about nine billion dollars, according to data released Tuesday by the Saudi Ministry of Finance.
The $ 8.9 billion deficit is due to a drop in oil revenues of $ 47 billion in the second quarter, down 5% from the second quarter of last year.
Bloomberg said the deficit widened as government spending increased on economic sectors and welfare programs. The Saudi budget deficit was $ 1.97 billion in the first quarter of last year.
The deficit widened in the second quarter after the budget posted a surplus of more than $ 7 billion in the first quarter of this year, the first surplus since 2014.
Data released by the Saudi Ministry of Finance showed that non-oil revenues also fell by 4% in the second quarter, while government expectations increased by 5%.
While oil revenues are falling, the kingdom is pumping more money to revive its economy, which is expected to grow for the second consecutive year by 1.7 percent, after shrinking by 2017 by 0.7 percent, according to Bloomberg.
For his part, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said that the results of the first half of this year confirm the effectiveness of the financial and structural reforms implemented by the government, including the expansion of sources of government revenues through the implementation of initiatives to increase non-oil revenues.
According to the report of the Saudi Finance Minister, the results of the second quarter reflect an improvement in financial performance during the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year, thus contributing to achieve the target results for the current year.
In the data provided by Al-Jadan, the budget deficit in the first half of this year amounted to 1.52 billion dollars, compared with 11.12 billion dollars for the same period last year.