Riyadh – Mubasher: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expected Saudi Arabia’s economy to grow this year and over the medium-term, helped by the kingdom’s recent economic and social reforms.

The Washington-based fund also forecast that the GCC nation will make some headways towards implementing the economic reforms in line with Saudi Vision 2030 that aims at weaning its economy off oil revenues.

“The government remains committed to wide-ranging economic and social reforms to transform the economy away from its traditional reliance on oil and to create a more dynamic private sector that creates jobs for the growing working age population,” Tim Callen, the IMF's mission chief for Saudi Arabia, said.

For his part, Minister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan has said that the Saudi government is making a major progress in carrying out the reforms, especially after the positive performance of its budget in the first quarter of 2018.

“The primary challenges for the government going forward are to sustain the implementation of the bold structural changes that are underway, meet the medium-term fiscal targets it has set, and resist the temptation to re-expand government spending in line with higher oil prices,” Callen added.