High oil prices boost Saudi Arabia budget surplus

The Saudi Cabinet has approved a budget for the state at a cost of USD 89.3 billion for 2006, which is the highest in the history of the Kingdom.

The Saudi King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz announced upon presiding over the session of the cabinet on Tuesday its budget for the new fiscal year, according to the Saudi news agency.

Expectations indicate that the Kingdom will register a standard surplus at a value of 214 billion Saudi dinars ( USD 57 billion) in the current year. This doubles the surplus of the budget of last year which was USD 26.14 billion.

The government said that the country's revenues for 2005 will be 555 billion Saudi dinars ( USD 148 billion) and constitutes two folds of what was expected when the budget was drawn while the volume of spending reached 341 billion Saudi dinars ( USD 90.93 billion).

General debts is expected to decrease in the current year to 475 billion Saudi dinars. The Saudi minister of Finance Ibrahim al-Assaf explained that 141 billion Saudi riyals of the budget surplus will be used to pay debts, noting that debts refunding will be a priority in 2006.

Al-Assaf called for the government's awareness towards the inflation due to the great growth in the spending of the private and public sectors.