By Muaath bin Saad, Mohammed Idries

Riyadh-Mubasher: Saudi Arabia is moving towards ending reliance on oil as a main source in its budget, said Mazen Al-Sudairi, head of Alistithmar Capital.

He told Mubasher that the move will be taken gradually in the long term, through diversifying the economic sources over the next 10 years.  

However, such reliance cannot be totally dismissed because the kingdom produces a large quantity of oil reaching nearly 10 million barrels a day, Al-Sudairi said.

Ahmed Shrief, financial advisor, said the budget will be boosted by the kingdom’s strong cash reserve, which will help maintain the spending volume and the low level of debts.

Saudi Arabia aims to rationalise spending through focusing on the major projects that serve the economic policy, the advisor said.

He added that the government plans to support the private and non-oil sectors as well as investment in renewable energy, which will accordingly help reduce reliance on oil.

The kingdom relies on oil as a main source in the budget, especially as it constitutes 80% of the current account revenues.

Oil revenues are expected to fall by SAR 548 billion in 2015, according to a recent report by Mubasher.

Translated by Abdul Maguid Aboshahla