Saudi education, health represents 39% of budget expenditures in H1

RIYADH: Saudi education and health sectors made up 39 percent of the budget expenditures in the first half of 2022.

The education and health sectors together accounted for SR197.9 billion ($52.6 billion) out of a total of SR512.92 billion, according to newly released figures by the government.

The education sector expenditures amounted to about SR98.3 billion, equivalent to 53.1 percent of its approved budget, while spending in the health and social development sector amounted to about SR99.5 billion, equivalent to 72 percent of the total money allocated for 2022.

In the second quarter of 2022, Saudi Arabia’s oil revenues soared 89 percent year-on-year, helping the Kingdom post a SR77.9 billion ($20.8 billion) budget surplus.

Oil revenues reached SR250.4 billion in the three months to June, compared to SR132.1 billion in the same period in 2021.

The takings accounted for 68 percent of all Saudi Arabia’s revenues over 2022’s second quarter.

Oil exports reached $30 billion in March, the highest in at least six years, according to Bloomberg.

The rally in prices and rising production increased the value of crude exports by 123 percent, to almost $1 billion a day, official statistics showed. 

Saudi Arabia’s crude exports soared in July to the highest level since April amid international pressure to tame elevated oil prices, Bloomberg reported.

Observed seaborne shipments from the Kingdom hit 7.5 million barrels a day last month,

according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a revised 6.6 million barrels a day in June.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, also known as OPEC+ , has been gradually boosting crude production for about a year, with benchmark oil prices trading around $100 a barrel.

This has been contributing to global inflation.

The OPEC alliance is gradually easing away from output curbs imposed early in the pandemic.

The group agreed on Wednesday to a further 100,000 barrels per day oil production hike from September as it warned of a lack of spare capacity for any greater increases.