The Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of Economy and Planning, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, confirmed that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has faced this crisis from a position of strength. The Kingdom has taken several steps during the past several years, based on Saudi Vision 2030 and on the wise leadership of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to diversify the economy, a journey that began four years ago, and has many years left to go. The Kingdom have also taken steps in relation to public finance controls and controlling the budget deficit. And we witnessed great positive results at the end of 2019. He said during an interview on "Al-Arabiya" channel about the financial precautionary measures for the Coronavirus pandemic: " The beginning of this year, the global coronavirus pandemic emerged with huge health and economic impacts. The Kingdom have been able to take firm and quick steps to maintain the safety of people and citizens, and to provide resources to the health sector." Al-Jadaan pointed out that the results of the first quarter have certainly not shown the pandemic's impact on a significant level. The precautionary measures taken by the government, and the significant results of those steps on the economy and on public financing, both globally and within the Kingdom, these will show in the second, third and fourth quarters depending on developments in the health and economic sectors, indicating that the Kingdom is committed to public finance and sustainability, and is committed to having enough financial strength to face this crisis even if it is prolonged, adding that the Kingdom have taken several steps both in relation to health, and in relation to financial measures in terms of reducing expenditure we are currently looking at what we can do to reduce the deficit level. He stated there has been a significant drop in revenues, and we will likely see its impact in the coming quarters, whether in oil revenues, as the Kingdom began the year with oil prices higher than $60 per barrel; these days we are seeing the numbers near $20 and this huge drop leads to oil revenues dropping by more than half. Non-oil revenues will also be dropping due to the precautionary measures, which have caused a huge reduction in economic activity and as a result, non-oil revenues will drop. We have to deal with this wisely and efficiently and the Kingdom will be looking at the several options it has in front of it to face a pandemic the world has never seen the likes of for more than 70 years, since nearly World War II. Globally, a pandemic at this level has never been seen before. --More 04:54 LOCAL TIME 01:54 GMT 0022 www.spa.gov.sa/2081695
