Saudi Arabia posts an 84.3 billion riyal third-quarter budget deficit

Saudi Arabia recorded an 84.3 billion riyal budget deficit in the third quarter, with government spending of 343.4 billion riyals exceeding revenue of 259.1 billion riyals. Oil receipts fell, while non-oil revenue rose, showing that newer sources of public income are helping cushion the budget but are not yet large enough to offset a sharp oil-revenue decline. Over the first nine months of 2026, spending reached 1.103 trillion riyals and revenue totaled 858.9 billion riyals, producing a cumulative deficit of 244.3 billion riyals. The figures capture the fiscal trade-off in Saudi Arabia’s economic transformation: keeping investment and public programs moving while oil income remains the budget’s biggest swing factor.