Saudi Arabia revised up its forecast budget deficit for 2025 to a five-year high $65.3bn last month, but even that is looking potentially optimistic after a blow-out $23.6bn deficit last quarter. Recently released statistics from the Ministry of Finance show that Q3’s deficit was the largest quarterly deficit since 4Q 2020 due to a combination of higher spending and falling non-oil revenues.
The Q3 results mean that Saudi Arabia racked up a $48.5bn deficit over the first nine months of the year, which would already equate to the largest full-year figure since 2020’s massive $78.4bn. Saudi Arabia typically records its largest quarterly deficit in Q4, and any figure above $16.8bn would see the full year deficit come in higher than the recently evised target (MEES, 3 October). (CONTINUED - 623 WORDS)
