RIYADH, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Saudi cabinet passed on Tuesday its 2018 state budget with a historic expenditure of 260.8 billion U.S. dollar and expected a reduction in the deficit to below 8 percent of the GDP.
The expenditure would increase by 5.6 percent than the current year, while the revenues would be 208.8 billion U.S dollars with an increase by 12.5 percent than 2017, including 77.9 billion U.S. dollars non-oil revenues, Al Arabiya local news reported.
The deficit is expected to be 52 billion U.S. dollars with a reduction by 15 percent than the current year. Saudi Arabia is also looking forward to generating 22.6 billion U.S. dollars from taxes to be introduced early next year on goods and services.
According to Saudi Press Agency, the government reduced its dependency on oil revenues by half and the association of the development and investment funds in capital and investment expenditures increased by 13 percent.
The government decided to continue with development projects and reduction of the public debt by 30 percent.
