Medium-term growth needs to be higher to absorb job seekers In October, the International Monetary Fund warned that Saudi Arabia could deplete its financial assets within five years. It’s now finding more reasons to be optimistic about the biggest Arab economy. Spending cuts and measures including the gradual reduction of energy subsidies mean that the budget deficit will probably fall to 9.6 percent of economic output in 2017 from 13 percent this year, according to Tim Callen, the IMF’s Saudi mission chief. The shortfall was 16 percent in 2015. “The fiscal adjustment is under way, the government is very serious in bringing about that fiscal adjustment,” Callen said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “We’re happy with the progress that’s being made.” The kingdom responded to the drop in crude prices by laying out a plan for the biggest economic shakeup […]