The Finance Minister of Saudi Arabia has sanctioned the kingdom’s 2026 borrowing plan, with financing requirements of approximately 217 billion riyals ($57.86 billion), the finance ministry announced on Saturday, as the Gulf nation aims to implement its economic diversification plans.
It added that the amount is intended to meet the estimated budget deficit in 2026 of approximately $44 billion, as well as the repayment of debt due in 2026 of approximately at $13.87 billion.
The largest oil exporter in the world is already over fifty percent of the way through its Vision 2030 strategy, which envisions hundreds of billions of dollars in government spending to reduce its economic reliance on oil payments.
The budget states that the third phase of the plan will begin in 2026, when the emphasis will no longer be on introducing economic reforms but rather on maximising the effects of the reforms as Riyadh uses its $925 billion sovereign wealth fund to move out of postponed mega-real estate projects and into other sectors such as logistics and religious tourism.
National Debt Management Center (NDMC) of the kingdom predicts the domestic debt market to take 20-30 percent of the total borrowing in 2026, and the international borrowing to take 25-30 percent.
The NDMC indicated in its 2026 annual borrowing plan that the private market will finance as much as 50 percent of the funding mix, among other instruments like project infrastructure financing and export credit agencies.
