November 28, 2001	Wednesday	Ramazan 12, 1422

RIYADH, Nov 27: For the first time in 19 years, since 1982, Saudi Arabia has announced a surplus in the national budget for the year 2000, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) said in its 37th annual report presented to King Fahd by the National Economy Minister Dr Ibrahim Al-Assaf.

The Kingdom has also achieved surplus in balance of payments for the second consecutive year, the report said. Buoyant oil prices over the last couple of years have helped the Kingdom achieve this budget surplus, the report added.

SAMA said the Kingdom’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 4.5 per cent over the year under review. In current prices terms the growth recorded was 21.7 per cent as compared to 11.5 per cent the previous year. During the year under review the oil sector in the Kingdom grew by 8.5 per cent, whereas, the non-oil sector recorded a 2.6 per cent growth.

In its report SAMA said the actual public revenues rose by 74.9 per cent last year to SR258.1 billion while expenditures rose by 28 per cent to SR235.3 billion.

“This brought the surplus to SR22.7 billion, which is 3.6 per cent of the GDP,” the report said. The Kingdom recorded a deficit of SR36.3 billion the previous year.

The report said the minerals sector registered a growth rate of 9.6 per cent. SAMA predicted a similar growth pattern in this sector for this fiscal year. The industrial sector also grew during the period by 3.2 per cent, the construction sector by 3.5 per cent, commercial sector by three per cent and the finance and business sector by 2.5 per cent.

The report stated that the monetary and banking sectors achieved an impressive growth of 4.5 per cent as bank deposits rose by 7.1 per cent and loans and advances to the private sector by 6.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Crown Prince Abdullah has advised the Saudis to tighten their belt in the wake of a global economic slowdown.

“Saudi Arabia is integrated in the global economy and is consequently affected by developments that take place in any part of the world. In the light of the current economic difficulties, it would be better to tighten our belts until we have weathered the storm,” the crown prince said while addressing the country’s top security and military officers here.