The Saudi budget for 2023 revealed that total revenues amounted to SAR1.21 trillion, equivalent to approximately $322.6 billion. Expenditures, on the other hand, reached SAR1.29 trillion (approximately $344 billion), resulting in a deficit of SAR81 billion (about $21.58 billion).
Read more: Saudi records budget surplus of $39.7 billion in first 9 months of 2022
According to the Saudi Ministry of Finance, the actual budget revenues for the fourth quarter of 2023 were SAR357.984 billion, while expenditures for the same period stood at approximately SAR394.979 billion.
Non-oil revenues in 2023 experienced a notable increase of 11 percent compared to the previous year, reaching around SAR457.728 billion. For the fourth quarter of 2023, non-oil revenues amounted to approximately SAR108.773 billion.
As for oil revenues, they totaled SAR754.6 billion ($201.2 billion) in 2023, with a significant 28 percent surge to SAR249.2 billion in the final quarter of the year.
However, non-oil revenues saw a decline of 12 percent in the last quarter of 2023, amounting to SAR108.8 billion, compared to about SAR123.8 billion in the same quarter of 2022.
Government spending
To cover the deficit, Saudi Arabia relied on external borrowing for approximately 75 percent, equivalent to SAR60 billion, while sourcing around SAR21 billion from the local debt market.
By the end of 2023, the Kingdom’s public debt reached SAR1.05 trillion, up from SAR990.08 billion the previous year. Internal debt accounted for SAR644.4 billion, whereas external debt stood at roughly SAR405.9 billion.
In terms of expenditure allocation, spending on health and social development increased by 13 percent to SAR255.9 billion in 2023. Education spending also rose by 4 percent, reaching SAR209.9 billion. Additionally, military expenditures experienced a 12 percent increase, totaling SAR254.5 billion by the end of 2023.
In 2022, Saudi Arabia achieved a budget surplus of 103.9 billion riyals ($27.68 billion), a 13 percent increase over previous estimates, due to higher oil prices boosting government revenues.
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