RIYADH — — Saudi Arabia expects its nominal gross domestic product (GDP) to exceed $1 trillion during the year 2022, and this is for the first time in the Kingdom's history, according to Minister of Finance Muhammad Al-Jadaan. Nominal GDP is the market value of the final production of goods and services within a country in a given period using that year's prices, and it is also called current prices. Addressing a press conference held on the occasion of announcing the general budget for the year 2023 on Wednesday, Al-Jadaan said that the nominal GDP will reach SR3.97 trillion ($1.05 trillion) by the end of this year. "Expectations indicate that this figure will reach SR3.87 trillion in 2023, then rise to between SR3.9 trillion and SR4 trillion in 2024," he said. The Ministry of Finance expected that the 2023 budget would achieve a surplus of SR16 billion, an increase of 77.7 percent from what it monitored in the preliminary statement at the end of September. The current year's budget recorded the first surplus in nine years, amounting to SR102 billion. The figures announced on Wednesday evening showed the government's confidence in its ability to maximize its financial resources, despite the lack of clarity in the energy market prospects on which the country relies. In this context, the Ministry of Finance estimated the total revenues in the next year's budget at about SR1.13 trillion, and the total expenditures at about SR1.114 trillion.
