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28 March 2024

Saudi assets gain SR237 bn in 10 months

Published
By Staff

Saudi Arabia’s foreign assets grew by nearly S237 billion in the first 10 months of 2013, indicating the world’s largest oil exporter is heading for another massive fiscal surplus.

The assets controlled by the Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (SAMA), central bank, hit an all time high of SR2,722 billion at the end of October, an increase of around SR12 billion over their level a month ago.

The increase meant that the Gulf Kingdom has bolstered its assets by nearly SR237 billion since the end of 2012, when they stood at SR2,486 billion.

SAMA’s figures showed the bulk of the rise was in investment in foreign securities, which gained nearly SR266 billion to climb to their highest level of around SR1,936 billion at the end of October compared with SR1,670 billion at the end of 2012.

But deposits with banks abroad declined to around SR528 billion from SR575 billion while “other assets” rose to SR30 billion from SR18.9 billion. Foreign currencies and gold increased to SR197 billion from SR186 billion, the report showed.

Analysts in Saudi Arabia said the sharp rise in the assets meant that the largest Arab economy was again heading for another fiscal surplus because of high oil prices, which are projected to end the yea nearly 50 per cent higher than Riyadh’s budget forecasts.

Saudi Arabia projected 2013 revenue at SR829 billion and expenditure at a record high of SR820 billion, with a budgeted surplus of SRnine billion.

Independent forecasts showed the surplus could rocket by 20-30 times at the end of 2013 despite an expected rise in spending.

 “Based on our forecast of oil prices at $110 a barrel, we project a fiscal surplus of SR277 billion or 9.5 per cent of GDP,” National Commercial Bank (NCB) said.

“This will result in oil revenues of SR1,043.5 billion, representing a decrease of 8.5 per cent compared to actual oil revenues in 2012, which also takes into account a 3.7 per cent decline in export volume.”

Saudi Arabia had forecast a small deficit in 2012 but at the end of the year, it turned into a massive surplus of SR387 billion, the Kingdom’s second highest fiscal surplus after the record 2008 balance of SR581 billion.