Managing Public Debt: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Managing public debt efficiently and effectively requires good management of public finances and a high quality of performance by financial and non-financial institutions in a given country. Likewise, the quality of a nation’s economic and financial plans is an essential element in making the most of public debt and reducing the economic risk of default. This paper analyzes the levels of efficiency and effectiveness of public debt management in Saudi Arabia from 1991 to 2019 by looking at the relationship among the following variables: oil and non-oil revenues out of the total revenues, the current and capital expenditures of total expenditures, the ratio of deficit/surplus to GDP, and the general government’s gross debt percentage of GDP. The outcome of the study suggests that the current system of managing the state’s financial affairs and public debt might be not suitable for achieving the goals of the Saudi strategic plans. Therefore, the study calls for economic and financial policies to be developed to include all elements that affect the economy (e.g., governmental performance). The study also calls for the adoption of a long-term fiscal policy that does not change as state revenues increase and for the support of the implementation of the principles of good governance in the public finance system (e.g., strengthening public participation in the process of making the public budget and supporting the independence of the financial supervision agencies).