2019-04-01 10:50:00
SAUDIS DEBT WILL UP
REUTERS - Saudi Arabia plans to issue 118 billion riyals ($31.5 billion) in debt this year to help finance the national budget deficit, the country's Debt Management Office (DMO), part of the ministry of finance, said.
Saudi Arabia has borrowed extensively over the past few years to refill state coffers depleted by a drop in oil prices.
At the end of 2018, it had around $150 billion in outstanding government debt, 54 percent of which was in local currency and the rest denominated in U.S. dollars.
The kingdom issued $7.5 billion in international bonds in January. It said its foreign funding this year "would be positioned in a way in which (Saudi Arabia) could secure most of its funding in the first quarter", to reduce exposure to market risks and to allow Saudi government-related issuers to tap the debt markets.
The statement comes a few days before Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil giant, is expected to issue its first bonds in the international markets.
Saudi Arabia's deficit funding requirements for this year are estimated at $35 billion, which will be funded with an approximate net debt issuance of $31.5 billion, while the rest will come from government deposits at the central bank, the DMO statement said.
By the end of 2019, Saudi Arabia plans to have around $181 billion in outstanding debt, corresponding to 21.7 percent of gross domestic product.
The DMO said this year it would try to "contain" the government's outstanding debt exposure to interest rate risk by reducing the percentage of floating-rate instruments in its portfolio.
At the end of 2018, 73 percent of Saudi debt issues had a fixed rate and 27 percent had a floating rate. By the end of 2019, the government wants to increase fixed-rate debt to 78 percent of its portfolio.
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Earlier:
2019, March, 27, 11:50:00
SAUDI'S OIL FOR CHINA UP 28.5%
China's crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia surged 28.5% year on year to 1.56 million b/d in February, surpassing Russia to become the top crude supplier in the month, latest data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
2019, March, 22, 10:15:00
SAUDI'S OIL WILL DOWN
Saudi Arabia will supply its clients with significantly less oil than they requested in April, extending deeper-than-agreed oil production cuts into a second month, a Saudi official familiar with the policy said.
2019, March, 20, 10:00:00
SAUDI ARABIA INVESTMENT $23 BLN
Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would spend 86 billion riyals ($23 billion) to boost the quality of life in the capital Riyadh, increasing green space and recreational areas and installing 1,000 works of art across the city.
