Saudi finances

But because of the plunge in oil prices since June 2014, Riyadh faces a huge budget gap this year, which Mubarak said was expected to exceed the originally projected 145 billion riyals. The International Monetary Fund has estimated the deficit will be about 20 percent of GDP, or approximately $150 billion. So far Riyadh has mainly been running down its financial reserves to cover the deficit; Mubarak said the government had withdrawn 244 billion riyals from reserves in 2015."