Roundup: Saudi Arabia expects more cost-cutting amid oil swamp

Saudi Arabia is likely to take more cost-cutting measures as local experts say the country's deficit is expected to hit 69 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016.

The figure, albeit lower than the government projection of 87 billion U.S. dollars, is still considered high for a country that has been clobbered by the sharp drop in oil prices since 2015.

In late November, the Gulf Arab country announced that its total public debt has reached 91.2 billion U.S. dollars, with an outstanding debt of 53.3 billion dollars in the year 2016 alone.

In October, Riyadh, for the first time, issued an international sovereign bond of 17.5 billion U.S. dollars, the biggest emerging market bond sale on record, with a view to slowing the drawdown of its foreign exchange reserves, buying more time to adjust its economy, and eliminating the risk of currency devaluation for the foreseeable future.

In April, Saudi deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saudi launched a major economic reform to attract investments for profitable business projects to help the oil-rich country shake off its heavy dependence on oil.

Part of the reform is to privatize an estimated 400 billion U.S. dollars' worth of assets to promote the economy and create millions of jobs.

Power generation, among others, is a key sector that the reform aims to privatize.

Earlier this month, Ziyad Al Shiha, chief executive officer of Saudi Electricity, told local news channel Al Arabiya that there will be a plan to privatize the sector in phases.

Meanwhile, 13 ministries and government agencies are also preparing to privatize part of their services. Employees, whose jobs are outsourced, will either retire, transfer to other government bodies, or work for the private firms that handle the outsourced jobs, local newspaper Al Madina reported.

On top of the reform, Saudi Arabia has set up an investment fund of 2.7 trillion U.S. dollars for its economic activities inside and outside the country, as the government aims to save 300 billion U.S. dollars and increase non-oil revenues to 100 billion U.S. dollars in four years.

Setbacks, however, have always been lying in wait for the cost-cutting reform.

The biggest setback is the reduction of deposits at the Saudi commercial banks, despite the fact that the 17.5 billion U.S. dollar bond the government issued in October has eased part of its financial burdens.

The private sector has also been handicapped by the spending cuts, as many companies have raised concerns about late settlement from the government.

The arrears have left foreign workers, mostly in the construction sector, struggling for months without getting paid.

But the Saudi Crown Prince promised in November that all overdue payments will be made by year end.

Fahad al-Hammadi, head of the National Contractors' Committee at the Council of Saudi Chambers, predicted in mid-November that the government would have settled at least 80 percent of its debts to the construction sector by the end of 2016.

On bold steps in economic transformation, Saudi Arabia launched an infrastructure project worth 34.6 billion U.S. dollars in Ras Al Khair Industrial City on the eastern coast of the country in November.

Despite unstable financial situations, Ras Al Khair, a new port city under development in Saudi Arabia, is expected to contribute 9.3 billion dollars to the GDP with mineral extraction and refinery, and create 120,000 jobs plus tens of thousands of indirect employment opportunities for the Saudis.

Other cost-cutting measures include general reduction in salaries and allowances of top officials and curbing the annual increment of government employees.

The country, however, has come to understand that its economic reform, even with the new trends of economic diversity, can never succeed if the price of oil continues to drop. It is high time for Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude exporter, to change its two-year pump-at-will policy.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Khalid Al-Falih has promised that the country will bear the biggest burden in reducing global oil supply. Experts say by just promising to cut output by 4.7 percent, the country would gain an 18 percent jump in oil prices.

For Saudi Arabia, a country still mired in the endless oil swamp, more cost-cutting even austerity measures are much needed if it wants to seek a clear way to protect itself from the volatile oil prices in the international markets. Endit