| Saudi Arabia will not need to tap into its reserves this year to finance additional budget spending but it is considering whether to issue Islamic or conventional bonds to help fund specific projects, the country’s Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told Reuters. Responding to a wave of social unrest across the region, the world’s top oil exporter pledged early this year to spend an estimated $130 billion, or nearly 30 percent of its economic output, on housing and other social measures for its citizens over an unspecified period.
That came on top of a record 2011 government budget of 580 billion riyals ($154 billion), raising the possibility that Saudi Arabia might have to dip into its fiscal reserves, estimated by analysts at about $280 billion, to fund spending.............................................Full Article: Source
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