Saudi Arabia earned $950m a day

Saudi Arabia earned a whopping $950 million a day in 2012, its highest current price crude export earnings since it began pumping oil more than 70 years ago.

The surge came after oil prices high an all time high average of around $110 and the Gulf Kingdom’s pumped at its highest annual output level of 9.9 million bpd.

The income stood at around $347.6 billion in 2012, bearing the previous 2011 record revenue of nearly $317 billion and exceeding double the 2009 crude export earnings of around $163 billion, when the price of Saudi crude dipped to around $59 and the world’s largest crude exporter pumped only about 8.2 million bpd.

A report by Saudi Arabia’s largest bank, National Commercial Bank (NCB), showed the surge in income lifted the country’s nominal GDP to an all time high of SR2,727 billion (Dh2,700 billion) and kept real growth at one of its highest levels of 6.8 per cent.

It also sharply widened the actual fiscal surplus from just SR12 billion to SR386 billion (Dh382 billion) despite an increase in spending by around SR163 billion.

NCB said the massive surplus boosted the Kingdom’s net foreign assets to a record high of around $648.5 billion at the end of 2012 from $535.9 billion at the end of 2011. It expected the assets to swell to $713 billion at the end of 2013 despite a sharp fall in the budget surplus due to lower earnings and higher spending.

It showed Saudi Arabia’s oil output could fall to around 9.5 million bpd this year while the price of its crude is expected to recede to nearly $105 a barrel.

The decline is projected to depress nominal GDP slightly to around SR2,720 billion and the budget surplus to nearly SR206 billion, the report said, adding that total actual revenue could shrink to nearly SR1,076 billion in 2013 from SR1,239.5 million in 2012.

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