The International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised Saudi Arabia's budget plans. Tim Callen, the IMF's mission chief for Saudi Arabia, said the gist of Saudi Arabia's plans was in line with the IMF's recommendations and that eliminating the deficit by around 2020 appeared possible. "The plan is in place — now the challenge is clearly implementation of that plan," Callen told an online news conference in Washington. Saudi Arabia's growth this year will be "significantly higher" than the International Monetary Fund's new forecast, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said in an interview on Tuesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos.
