The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, while chairing the Cabinet meeting here today, announced the general budget for the new fiscal year (1426-1427 AH). The general budget amounted to SR 335 billion. It is the highest budget ever witnessed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Minister of Culture and Information Iyad bin Amin Madani said, in a statement to SPA, that the Cabinet meeting focused on the discussion and approval of the general budget. Speaking on the occasion, King Abdullah said "in this budget, we have taken into account the importance of acceleration of completing the development programs and projects, notably the ones that extend the essential services to the citizens." 'At the same time, we have taken into account the continuing reduction in the volume of the general debt, which we have, with the grace of Almighty Allah paid a large part of it, and it reached SR 475 billion'. The King pointed out that the new budget included new projects with an estimated cost of about SR 126 billion. --MORE 1827 Local Time 1527 GMT
