Saudi newspapers highlighted in their editorials today a number of issues at local, regional and international arenas. Al-Riyadh newspaper reported in its editorial that despite the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, which the entire world is witnessing for second consecutive year, the Saudi economy is growing strongly. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's announcement of quarterly budgets has reflected remarkable progress being made by the national economy in various fields, the paper said. Q2 budget in this year has confirmed the success of goals of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 in achieving a strong and solid economy that does not depend on oil income, the paper added. During Q2, Saudi Arabia achieved revenues of about SAR248 billion, compared to expenditures of SAR252 billion, with a deficit of only SAR4.6 billion, indicate the strength of its economy, despite COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating repercussions that the entire world is facing, the paper further added. The growth of public revenues for the first half of this year reached about SAR 452 billion , an increase of about 39%, compared to the first half of last year, as about 45 percent of these revenues came from none oil sectors, the paper concluded. Al-Bilad newspaper reported in its editorial that since the launch of the program of Public Investment Fund (PIF) as essential step for achieving the goals of vision 2030, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has witnessed many great achievements. Such achievements, including maximizing the fund's assets, increasing the total return of shareholders and expanding the establishment of local companies in various fields, in addition to launching a number of major national projects, which contributed to the create of hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs, along with increasing PIF's participation in the non-oil GDP, the paper said. PIF's program continues its ambitions towards doubling PIF assets to reach a cumulative 4 trillion riyals by the end of 2025 to be one of the largest sovereign wealth funds in the world and the preferred investment partner, the paper added.
