JEDDAH – Saudi businessmen, officials and ordinary citizens are awaiting the announcement of the annual state budget, which is expected this week. The general budget for financial year 2013 will be presented at a special session of the Council of Ministers followed by royal decrees on the mechanisms for its implementation. Analysts and financial experts expect the state's general budget to be the biggest in the history of the Kingdom in line with the high revenues achieved by the state this year. They said this is confirmed by the various indices, reports and statistics issued throughout the year that state the Kingdom has surpassed the different economic crises the world is witnessing. Banker and financial analyst Hussein Hamad Al-Raqeeb said the volume of actual revenues for the 2012 budget exceeded SR1.1 trillion. He expects revenue levels in the 2013 budget to be equal to the volume of spending in the new budget, at over SR700 billion in revenue and the same figure for spending. He said an increase of over SR10 billion is expected in expenditure on the basis of forecasts in the 2012 budget that reached SR690 billion. Al-Raqeeb said budget spending will probably focus on housing projects, health services and the mega projects being carried out by the state to serve the two holy mosques in Makkah and Madinah. Journalist Abdullah Abusamh said there is optimism about the budget due to the country's growth. However, he said figures allocated for projects are meaningless as long as the projects are not monitored and followed up in a way ensuring that they are implemented. He said money should be spent on social development projects that are needed by the country. Projects for developing and upgrading infrastructure and all the projects that create job opportunities for young men and women are required too, he said. He said the state's initiatives aim to surpass citizens' ambitions and hopes.
