Saudi Deficit Shrinks As Capex Responsibility Switches To PIF

Saudi Arabia cut its quarterly budget deficit to a two-year low of $2.0bn for Q1 2021 thanks largely to increased tax revenues and greatly reduced government spending, with the state’s capex outlay having been largely farmed out to the PIF sovereign wealth fund.

The Q1 deficit is a significant year-on-year improvement from 1Q 2020’s $9.1bn, which ultimately led to a hefty full year 2020 deficit of $78.4bn (MEES, 12 March). (CONTINUED - 898 WORDS)