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Saudi Budget Records More than $90 Billion in Revenue in Second Quarter

File photo of the Saudi capital Riyadh - (SPA). 
File photo of the Saudi capital Riyadh - (SPA). 
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Saudi Budget Records More than $90 Billion in Revenue in Second Quarter

File photo of the Saudi capital Riyadh - (SPA). 
File photo of the Saudi capital Riyadh - (SPA). 

Saudi Arabia's budget recorded revenues of 338.8 billion riyals ($90.3 billion) in the second quarter of 2026, up 12% from the same period last year, driven by growth in both oil and non-oil revenues. Expenditures totaled 373.1 billion riyals ($99.5 billion), resulting in a budget deficit of 34.3 billion riyals ($9.1 billion).

The Ministry of Finance's quarterly budget performance report, released Thursday, showed that oil revenues rose 22% year on year during the second quarter to 185.1 billion riyals ($49.4 billion), compared with 151.7 billion riyals ($40.5 billion) in the same period of 2025. Meanwhile, non-oil revenues increased 3% to 153.7 billion riyals ($41 billion).

The strong second-quarter performance lifted Saudi Arabia's total revenue for the first half of the year to 599.8 billion riyals ($159.9 billion), a 6% increase from 565.2 billion riyals ($150.7 billion) in the corresponding period last year.

Oil revenues accounted for approximately 329.8 billion riyals ($88 billion) of total first-half revenue, up 9%, while non-oil revenues reached 269.9 billion riyals ($72 billion), an increase of 2%.

Within non-oil revenues, taxes on goods and services rose 5% to 154.1 billion riyals ($41.1 billion), while taxes on income, profits, and capital gains increased 2% to 20.9 billion riyals ($5.6 billion). By contrast, taxes on international trade and transactions fell 13% to 10.3 billion riyals ($2.8 billion).

Spending Growth

On the expenditure side, second-quarter spending increased 11% to 373.1 billion riyals ($99.5 billion), compared with 336.1 billion riyals ($89.6 billion) in the same period of 2025.

Capital spending on non-financial assets rose 16% to 46.2 billion riyals ($12.3 billion), while employee compensation increased 3% to 144.4 billion riyals ($38.5 billion). Financing costs climbed 41% to 16.8 billion riyals ($4.5 billion), and social benefits rose 8% to 42.5 billion riyals ($11.3 billion).

During the first half of the year, total spending reached 759.8 billion riyals ($202.6 billion), up 15% year on year, resulting in a cumulative deficit of 160 billion riyals ($42.7 billion), after the first-quarter deficit reached 125.7 billion riyals ($33.5 billion).

The data show that high levels of spending continued to be directed toward priority sectors. Health and social development received 170.6 billion riyals ($45.5 billion) during the first half of the year, equivalent to 66% of its annual allocation. Military spending totaled 124.6 billion riyals ($33.2 billion), while education spending reached 109.7 billion riyals ($29.3 billion). Spending on economic resources also increased 24% from the same period a year earlier to 56.5 billion riyals ($15.1 billion).

Public Debt

According to the report, the entire first-half deficit of 160 billion riyals was financed through borrowing, with no withdrawals from government reserves. The balance of the state's general reserve stood at 399.1 billion riyals ($106.4 billion) at the end of the period, while the current account balance reached 39.9 billion riyals ($10.6 billion).

Outstanding public debt rose to approximately 1.685 trillion riyals ($449.3 billion) at the end of the first half, compared with 1.519 trillion riyals ($405.1 billion) at the beginning of the period. As of the end of June, the debt consisted of approximately 1.06 trillion riyals ($282.7 billion) in domestic debt and 624.9 billion riyals ($166.6 billion) in external debt.

Saudi Arabia's 2026 budget projected annual revenues of approximately 1.147 trillion riyals ($306 billion) and expenditures of 1.313 trillion riyals ($350.1 billion), with an expected deficit of 165.4 billion riyals ($44.1 billion).

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Business

Swiss and Chinese Reach Agreement on Updated Free Trade Deal

FILE PHOTO: A China yuan banknote featuring late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong and a computer keyboard are seen reflected on an image of Chinese flag in this illustration picture taken November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A China yuan banknote featuring late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong and a computer keyboard are seen reflected on an image of Chinese flag in this illustration picture taken November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
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Swiss and Chinese Reach Agreement on Updated Free Trade Deal

FILE PHOTO: A China yuan banknote featuring late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong and a computer keyboard are seen reflected on an image of Chinese flag in this illustration picture taken November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A China yuan banknote featuring late Chinese chairman Mao Zedong and a computer keyboard are seen reflected on an image of Chinese flag in this illustration picture taken November 1, 2019. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo

Switzerland and China have completed negotiations on an updated free trade deal which will increase Swiss access to its third biggest trading partner, Swiss officials said on Thursday.

Swiss president Guy Parmelin and China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao announced the conclusion of the talks after a meeting in Bern.

Under the agreement, 99.8% of Swiss exports can enter the Chinese market duty free, upgrading an existing deal where the terms applied to only around half of Swiss shipments, Reuters reported.

Almost all Chinese exports to Switzerland are duty free under the existing 2014 free trade agreement between the two countries, Beijing's first such deal with an economy in continental Europe.

Other areas covered in the new agreement include rules of origin and trade facilitation, trade in services, digital trade, competition, and economic and technical cooperation.

China is Switzerland's third biggest trade partner after Germany and the United States, with bilateral trade amounting to 46 billion Swiss francs ($57.6 billion) so far in 2026.

Trade between the two countries has expanded from 31.7 billion francs in 2015 to 51.2 billion francs last year, according to figures from the Swiss customs office, with China a big market for Swiss chemicals, pharmaceuticals, precision instruments and watches.

Once the legal review has been completed, a signing of the deal is expected later this year, before the domestic approval processes in each country take place.

Business

US Unemployment Claims Dropped to 206,000 Last Week with Layoffs Still Sparse

A "now hiring" sign is displayed on a local business after, US employment growth slowed more than expected in July, in Encinitas, California, US August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A "now hiring" sign is displayed on a local business after, US employment growth slowed more than expected in July, in Encinitas, California, US August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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US Unemployment Claims Dropped to 206,000 Last Week with Layoffs Still Sparse

A "now hiring" sign is displayed on a local business after, US employment growth slowed more than expected in July, in Encinitas, California, US August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
A "now hiring" sign is displayed on a local business after, US employment growth slowed more than expected in July, in Encinitas, California, US August 1, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Fewer people applied for US unemployment benefits last week, another sign that layoffs remain low and that most Americans enjoy job security.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that jobless claims dropped to 206,000 last week from a revised 212,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, ticked up to 204,000 last week from 199,750.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a harbinger for where the job market is headed. For the past year, claims have been at a historically low range of around 200,000 to 230,000 a week.

“The labor market has yet to show any sign of wear and tear from the surge in oil prices since the start of the war with Iran and the global energy supply shock,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a commentary, The AP news reported.

The number of people collecting unemployment benefits the week that ended Aug. 8 rose to 1.8 million from 1.78 million the week before.

The US unemployment rate is low at 4.1%, partly because the economy has proved resilient in the face of higher energy prices. But it’s also because President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and the ongoing retirement of baby boomers mean that fewer people are competing for jobs: More than 1.3 million people have dropped out of the US labor force over the past year.

The job market is tough for those looking for their first job and for those who lost their jobs and are looking for new work. At the same time, companies, remembering the worker shortages that followed the end of COVID-19 lockups, are still reluctant to let go of staff; but they aren’t eager to take on new workers. Economists regularly refer to a “no hire, no fire″ job market.

In July, companies, government agencies and nonprofits together cut 23,000 jobs. So far this year, employers are adding 61,000 jobs a month. That is an improvement on the 9,700 they averaged last year — the weakest hiring outside a recession since 2002. The lingering effects of high interest rates and Trump’s erratic trade policies discouraged companies from hiring in 2025.

Hiring this year remains well below the 166,00 monthly jobs created, on average, in 2023 and 2024, let alone the 491,000 a month recorded during the 2021-2022 hiring boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

Business

IMF Welcomes Lebanon Bank Law Changes as 'Major Step' 

Lebanese Central Bank headquarters in Beirut (Reuters)
Lebanese Central Bank headquarters in Beirut (Reuters)
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IMF Welcomes Lebanon Bank Law Changes as 'Major Step' 

Lebanese Central Bank headquarters in Beirut (Reuters)
Lebanese Central Bank headquarters in Beirut (Reuters)

The International Monetary Fund has welcomed the Lebanese parliament's passing of amendments to a bank resolution law as a major step, but challenges to implementing the law could further delay recovery for an economy battered by years of financial collapse and the conflict with Israel.

The reforms are among the IMF's requirements for Lebanon to access funding to bring government debt out of default after decades of profligate spending by the country's ruling elite, sending the economy into a tailspin in late 2019. Banks imposed sweeping capital controls, locking depositors out of their savings, and stopped issuing loans.

In January the IMF had demanded changes to the draft rescue law, Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam told Reuters at the time.

Now, the bank resolution law aims to address vast funding shortfalls in the financial system and is among a set of measures that ultimately aim to fix the banking sector and allow depositors who have been frozen out of their savings to gradually recover their money.

“We met 99% of what they wanted,” legislator Alain Aoun, who sits on Parliament’s Finance and Budget Committee, told Reuters.

The most notable amendments to the law include changes to the Central Bank’s governance procedures. The makeup of the Higher Banking Commission – a governing body within the Central Bank — will be altered, Aoun said. The amendments empower the body to “decide the fate of Lebanon’s banks,” and would determine if a bank requires restructuring or liquidation and any further steps to rehabilitate it.

Federico Lima, the IMF representative in Lebanon, said on Wednesday that the "effective implementation of this new bank resolution framework is critical."

"In addition, we are continuing discussions with the Lebanese authorities on the improvements needed to align the draft Financial Stabilization and Depositor Recovery (FSDR) law with international principles," he added.

In 2022, the government put losses from the financial crisis at about $70 billion, a figure that analysts and economists forecast is now likely to be higher.

Last week, the parliament passed amendments to the law, but it would still be pending approval by the Lebanese president.

The possibility of members challenging the law before the Constitutional Council — which has precedent for annulling provisions of earlier financial legislation — could also bring further delays.

The draft had already undergone several rewrites because of competing demands from different financial institutions; the IMF called on Lebanon to improve the law to bring it in line with international standards and consider tax reforms to spark public spending on reconstruction efforts.

The World Bank ranks the Lebanese economic crisis among the worst globally since the mid-19th century. Depositors were frozen out of dollar accounts and the Lebanese pound fell by more than 90%. Additionally, the war with Israel was estimated to have caused $7 billion in damages.

"This is the only country in the world that has had a banking crises for seven years and has not tried to find a solution," a senior Lebanese official told Reuters. "Staying where we are shouldn't be an option."