Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan speaks at the meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank heads. SPA Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said he estimated the country’s budget deficit to widen up to 9% by the end of the year, from an earlier projection of 6.4%, due to the fall of oil prices and the coronavirus outbreak. Jadaan told a news conference broadcast on state television that the government has a contingency plan and flexibility through a mixture of spending cuts, borrowing and tapping of reserves. “We have huge reserves and very large investments, but we don’t want to liquidate any of these so we will borrow … I don’t expect the deficit by the end of 2020 to exceed 7% to 9%, and this is our target,” he said. Jadaan said the government approved raising the debt ceiling to 50% of gross domestic product, from 30%, […]